


Heist

by Loraclynn



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - The Italian Job Fusion, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Boys Kissing, Character Death, Good Parent Robert Lightwood, M/M, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-10
Updated: 2019-08-27
Packaged: 2020-04-23 15:21:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 25
Words: 26,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19153705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Loraclynn/pseuds/Loraclynn
Summary: After being betrayed and left for dead in Italy, Magnus Bane and his team plan an elaborate gold heist against their former ally.





	1. Genoa

Robert Lightwood is in his 50s, he is a tasteful man currently in an exclusive jewellery shop buying a very beautiful, and very expensive, men’s diamond watch. The saleswoman wraps it up as he dials a number on his cell phone.

 

Alec Lightwood is 22 and crushingly attractive. He has just stepped out of the shower, hair still wet, wrapping a towel around his waist reaching for his phone “Hello?”

 

Robert can’t help but smile at the sound of his sons voice “Hi, sweetie”

 

Alec plops down on his bed “Dad! How are you?”

 

“I'm sending you something” Robert says

 

Alec smiles “Really? Does it smell nice?”

 

Robert chuckles a little “No. But it's sparkly.”

 

Knowing what his father used to do for a living he can’t help but ask “Does it come with a receipt?”

 

With a huge smile Robert states “I'm having it sent to you from the store.”

 

Alec is relieved “Why not bring it by yourself? We could have dinner.”

 

Robert leaves the store and heads for the hotel “it would be a long trip. I'm in Genoa.”

 

Oh no, Alec thinks, he’s not liking the sound of that “Let me guess. Checking out the birthplace of Christopher Columbus.”

 

“Something like that.” Robert replies as he reaches the hotel

 

“With your parole officers approval of course” Alec asks already knowing the answer

 

Robert steps into the elevator. Rides up. “I think I've paid my P.O. my last visit. I liked the guy, but we never really connected.”

 

Alec rubs the back of his neck “What are you into, Dad? Don't break my heart. You told me you were through.”

 

“After this, I swear to you, I am.” And Robert means it, no more after this

 

“You promised me. Dad, don't do this.” Alec pleads

 

The elevator door opens, Robert steps out and starts down the hall. “Everything's going to be fine. I've got to go now. I love you. Bye.” He ends the call as he arrives at the hotel room door

 

Alec stares at his phone, “I love you too dad" he says even though Robert has already hung up


	2. Mystery Crate

Robert uses his card key to step into the hotel room and nods to three members of his team. No, not his team, Magnus's team.

 

Magnus Bane is 28 and is currently looking out the hotel room window through binoculars at a mysterious crate on the docks being loaded on a ship. Magnus is young to run his own crew but he's a born leader. “Simon?” He says while still watching the crate

 

Simon Lewis is 21, brilliant and punctilious, fingering the keyboard of his supercharged laptop “I've got the orbital data and SV clock corrections for each satellite that gets the signal. That'll make my reading as solid as the Precise Positioning Service that only the D.O.D. can use. We're talkin' 100 meter horizontal accuracy, 156 meter vertical accuracy, .340 nanoseconds time accuracy.”

 

Sebastian Verlac is 30 and has an arrogant confidence mixed with the hint of a smile. “Why can't he talk like a person?”

 

“..Because he's not.” Says Magnus, still looking through the binoculars

 

Simon stops typing “I do need one more thing, Magnus.”

 

Magnus turns and looks at him “What's that?”

 

Simon points out the window “Someone to turn the goddamn homing device on. No signal, no score.”

 

Magnus nods and looks at Sebastian “Where are the Italians?”

 

Sebastian sits beside Simon “Patience”

 

Meanwhile inside a moving Humvee is the remaining crew. The driver is Jace Wayland, 22, Gods gift to women if you ask him. Riding shotgun is Raphael Santiago, 30, immersed in a book- _Albert Einstein Creator & Rebel._ Raphael is a small Spanish man with a hearing aid. An accident in middle school left him partially deaf in his right ear

 

“What's that shit?” Jace asks pointing at the book

 

Raphael rolls his eyes “it’s a book. It's called reading. You should try it some time.”

 

Jace holds up three fingers “You wanna read something. Read between the lines.”

 

“Well here's something even you can relate to. Albert got a lot of game. That genius thing is a babe magnet.”

 

Jace raises his eyebrows “lemme see that book.”

 

Back in the hotel room, Robert eyes Magnus who looks pretty tense “Italians?”

 

“Not yet”

 

Sebastian is calm “Don't worry, they'll come through. You can trust these guys.”

 

Robert eyes him “I trust everyone. It's the devil inside them that I don't trust.” He looks to Magnus “Got a sec?”

 

Magnus gestures toward the bathroom “my office" They step inside, Magnus closing the door.

 

Robert leans against the counter “How you feeling, boss?”

 

“Fine. I'm fine, fine.” Magnus isn’t sure who he’s trying to convince

 

Robert seems amused by that answer. “You know what fine stands for don't you? Fucked-up, Insecure, Neurotic, and Emotional.”

 

Magnus smiles at that “You've become quite the philosopher since you quit drinking.”

 

Robert cocks his head “You don't like me sober?”

 

“No, I'm glad. Makes you a better thief.”

 

Robert pulls out a fine cigar, still in its wrapper, hands it to Magnus “For after the haul.”

 

Magnus takes the cigar “Hope I get to fire it up. If Sebastian’s Italians are a no-show, it's three months prep down the shitter and I've dragged you out of retirement for nothing”

 

“This is kinda nice. You being the boss with all the worries, me just along for the ride.” Robert says trying to lighten the mood

 

“Ain't you sweet…” Magnus is interrupted by Sebastian calling his name from the other side of the door

 

They exit the bathroom and Magnus takes the binoculars from Sebastian. He sees two Italian customs inspectors climbing on board the ship. “Your Italians?”

 

Sebastian nods “Yup. Those two are the Dixie cups.”

 

Magnus tilts his head at Sebastian “Dixie cups?”

 

Sebastian smirks “their disposable. I toss 'em away if there's a problem down the road”

 

On the ship the Inspectors quiz the nervous captain about the mysterious crate. One Inspector takes a crowbar and yanks out several strips of plywood, revealing unmarked cardboard boxes inside. The other Inspector pulls out one of the boxes and tears it open. It is filled with tomatoes. He takes a bite out of one. Nods. Everything seems to be order. The Captain looks relieved. The inspector closes the cardboard box but as he does this, he hits a power button on a small homing device and stuffs it in with the tomatoes.

 

In the hotel room on Simon's computer screen, a pulsating dot appears, beeping, sending out precise longitude and latitude. Simon smiles and mumbles “For those about to rock, we salute you”

 

Magnus pulls out his cell phone and dials. Inside the Humvee Jace answers his phone “Yeah?” He hears Magnus say “Let's get rich.”


	3. Balinese Girls

Jace pulls over at the port. They can see the crate being lowered into the ship's hold. Raphael climbs out, taking a large duffel bag with him. Jace drives off.

 

The Captain is doing his final checks before launch. Beneath the water Raphael, in scuba gear, is applying Nitramon explosive primer to the hull of the ship.

 

The Humvee is ploughing through thick brush that breaks out onto a secluded beach. Jace is still behind the wheel but now Sebastian is in the passenger seat. Simon is in the back still on the laptop, legs fidgeting like a drummer on meth.

 

Jace looks at Simon through the rear-view mirror “Can you chill out back there? You'd make a hummingbird nervous.”

 

Underneath the ship Raphael finishes up and speaks into the headset inside his gear “I'm done. Over.”

 

“Copy that. Enjoy the ride, cowboy” Simon says into the communicator

 

Raphael grabs onto the bottom rung of a ladder that is bolted to the side of the ship as it launches off the dock and into deeper water. It seems like he’s holding on forever when he spots two bright circles in a sea of darkness coming closer...becoming clearer... It's Magnus and Robert in scuba gear, riding torpedo-shaped Dive Propulsion Vehicles that pull them through the deep blue sea at a good 5 m.p.h. Both DPVs drag equipment bags. A Global Satellite Positioning Device is mounted on the handlebar of Magnus’s DPV, being fed information via Simon’s laptop. A circle pulsates on the monitor, a beacon to the crate in the ship.

 

Raphael still clings to the ladder. It's a wild ride. Through the headset inside his gear, he hears Simon “Get ready. 3. 2. 1. Drop.” Raphael lets go of the ladder. The ship's propellers speed by just above his head. WHOOSH. He removes a radio-controlled detonator and presses the button.

 

The hull of the boat explodes. Inside the ships hold a very neat hole on the bottom of the boat beneath the crate is opened. Water rushes in and the crate falls right through the cavity, vanishing. The huge, heavy crate drops down. . . down. . . hits the bottom of the sea.

 

Chaos rules on the ship. She's taking on water fast. No way to save her. The captain orders the dinghy lowered into the water.

 

Jace is parked in the sand at the top of the bay. Sebastian looks out to the bay through infrared binoculars. The ship is going down. The crew on the dingy head back to the port, which is in the opposite direction of this beach.

 

The DPVs are now attached by a tether to an underwater lifting bag that is used to move heavy loads through water. The crate is surrounded by Magnus, Robert, and Raphael. Using crowbars they pull apart the plywood. The cardboard boxes of tomatoes dump out, tomatoes spilling everywhere. Hidden between the boxes is a large safe. They move like clock-work. Raphael aims an underwater light at the dial. Magnus drills a small hole near the dial. Robert peers inside a horoscope and lines up the three wheels of the combination lock. Finally the door pops open. They stare at what's inside “Sweet Jesus” Magnus says into his headset.

 

Robert is nodding his head “that for which all virtue is sold. And almost every vice… gold.”

 

Raphael is doing a quick count of the bricks and lifting a few when he finally speaks up “160 glistening gold bricks. Made in Singapore, they weigh about 12 kilograms each and each one is decorated with the face of a Balinese girl. We're talking thirty million US dollars worth of gold here gentlemen”

 

Inside the Humvee they holler and high-five and it's just a great moment to be alive. Sebastian takes another peek through his infrared binoculars and sees the last vestiges of the ship hang above the waterline, then disappear.

 

The gold is now stacked and secured on the lifting bag. They attach an underwater parachute to the bag and hook a hose from an air tank into pressure release valves which cause the parachute to inflate looking like a hot-air balloon underwater, the whole thing floats up about five metres. Raphael holds onto its side, going along for the ride. Magnus and Robert speed off on the DPVs which are tethered to the inflatable bag. As they glide through the water towards the secluded beach where Jace, Sebastian and Simon wait for them

 

The six of them load up the Humvee and leave the beach as dawn is breaking.


	4. Dixie Cups

The Humvee climbs into the mountain ranges of the Alps. After a couple of hours they pull over and break out the champagne

 

Standing in a circle on the side of the mountains they each hold a paper cup of champagne; apple juice for Robert. He holds up his cup “I want to propose a toast. To Us.”

 

“TO US” they all cheer and take a drink

 

Robert continues “And I want to propose a toast to Magnus. You planned this one down to a T, kid. It's a gift. You saw the big picture, made contingencies, covered the angles.. Shit, you made thirty million dollars in gold drop out of sight without holding a gun. Who else could've pulled that off? Nobody. Absolutely nobody. To Magnus!”

 

Again they all raise their cups and cheer “TO MAGUS!”

 

Magnus shakes his head “guys… thank you. Really, thank you" he looks at each of them and then smiles “alright let me get to the map and double check our route out of here" he walks to the Humvee pulling out the map

 

The rest are looking down the mountain to the river below still drinking champagne. Raphael looks at them “so come on gentlemen, shopping list! Whose getting what, spare no dirty details”

 

“Guys, take a lesson from an old man, don’t spend it, invest it” Robert says

 

“In what?” Asks Raphael

 

Robert laughs “in gold” he walks away and joins Magnus by the Humvee

 

Raphael can’t let it go “what are you getting Jace?”

 

“Oh, I don’t know, there are a lot of things you can buy with that kind of money. I’m just thinking about naked girls and leather seats"

 

“Obviously” Raphael says

 

Jace thinks about it “I suppose I’d get an Aston Martin Vanquish, there’s not a whole lot of things a girl wouldn’t do in the passenger seat of one of those”

 

Simon speaks up “I’m gonna get a Nad T770 digital decoder with 70 watt amp and Bur Brown DACs”

 

The other three look at each other like Simon just spoke to them in Klingon

 

Simon rolls his eyes and dumbs it down for them “it’s a big stereo. Speakers so big and loud they can blow your dates clothes off”

 

Jace high-fives him “now your talking! What about you Raphael?”

 

“I’m getting me a big house with a library full of first additions. A whole room just for my shoes. Another just for my suits. What about you Sebastian?”

 

“I don’t know, I haven’t thought about it” Sebastian almost sounds agitated

 

“You haven’t thought about it?! Come on man, there must be something”

 

Sebastian shrugs “I don’t know. I like what all of you said, I’ll take one each of yours”

 

Over by the Humvee Magnus pulls out the cigar Robert gave him “I loved the toast. But you could have pulled this off with your eyes closed”

 

“Nah. You were incredible. Just incredible. I’m proud of you kid” Robert lights his cigar “You know Magnus, there are two kinds of thieves in this world; the ones who steal to enrich their lives and the ones who steal to define their lives. Don’t be the latter. Makes you miss out on what’s important in life”

 

“What're you talking about Robert? You've lived the life.”

 

Robert pulls out his wallet and opens it  “My life's been nothing but fake IDs, fake business cards and divorce papers. This is the only thing that's real” he shows Magnus a photograph of Alec that he keeps in his wallet.

 

“Alexander is a beautiful man”

 

Robert nods “he’s amazing. And I spent half his childhood in prison. This is a once in a lifetime haul Magnus. Bring down the curtain after this one. Make a new life. Find someone amazing and be there for her or him”

 

With the route doubled checked and the gold in three crates in the cargo bay, the team drive away. Jace and Sebastian are up front. The others are in the back seats. They’re on top of a mountain when a Jeep thunders out of a hiding place in the trees and blocks the road. The Humvee brakes to avoid running into it.

 

“Shit.” Jace says as he feels a gun at his temple being held by Sebastian

 

“Anyone acts stupid and his brains go on the windshield.” Sebastian has double-crossed them. To say the crew is shocked would be a good place to start.

 

They see the two Italian Inspectors jump out of the Jeep, AK-47s levelled at the crew.

 

Magnus can’t believe this “What the hell do you think you're doing?”

 

“Sorry Magnus. But I want the boxes of gold all to myself.”

 

The Italians pull the crates out of the back of the Humvee.

 

“You're not thinking this through. It's a stupid move.” Magnus tries

 

Sebastian cocks his head “Think so? Well you're the brilliant one Magnus. The Master Planner. Isn't that so, Robert?” Sebastian climbs out of the Humvee, gun still on Jace, the AK-47s aimed at the others. “You bet on the wrong horse.”

 

"We'll hunt you down. You're going to regret this.” Robert says through clenched teeth

 

Safely outside the Humvee, Sebastian turns his gun on Robert “No regrets, Dixie cup” BOOM. He shoots Robert in the head. Just like that.

 

The Italians follow suit, AK-47s screaming out bursts of full automatic fire at the crew. They duck for cover as the vehicle is riddled with gunfire. Glass shatters. Bullets ricochet. They're in the epicentre of hell.

 

Jace jerks the steering wheel and stomps the gas. Driving blind. The Humvee hits the side of the Jeep, grinds along side it, metal tearing against metal. The Humvee's right side tires precariously hover by the cliff and the raging water below. The gunners keep firing. Bullets rip into the Humvee's tires. It almost escapes, but it can't make it on shredded rubber. It careens off the road and plummets through the air and plunges into the raging river.

 

Sebastian watches from above. He takes one of the Italians AK-47 and starts shooting below. He can’t really tell if he’s hitting his targets or not but it feels good. He only stops shooting when he runs out of bullets.

 

Water cascades in through the open windows. They're thrown around as the Humvee rides the rapids. WHAM. The passenger door caves in as the Humvee rams into a large rock then is swept further downstream. Through the foam and spray, Magnus looks over to Robert. He's dead. The torrent roars. Only their chests and heads are above water. And that's not all. There's a waterfall ahead. The Humvee is palmed in its deadly embrace and hurled over. It cartwheels into the pool below, sending up a huge geyser of water. It sinks out of sight.

 

The crates of gold are now inside the Italians' Jeep. Sebastian climbs into the passenger seat, leaving the crew for dead. They barely pull away when the Jeep jerks to a stop by way of Sebastian pulling the emergency brake. He opens his door and walks around to the drivers side and the bodies of the two Italians, shot dead, are dumped out into the mud. Sebastian is alone now. Just him and the millions in gold.

 

Underwater The Humvee strikes the surface bottom with an ominous thud. The water entombs them. Blood from Roberts fatal gunshot mists the water red. They manage to get the door open. They start to swim out but Magnus won't go without Robert. He grabs his friend's body and pulls it up with him. They drag themselves ashore, Jace helping Magnus pull Roberts corpse. Magnus is shocked, tormented, grieved, and angry beyond description. Against the rocky embankment, he holds Robert. Not wanting to ever let go.


	5. Alexander

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is for you kbl55429! It's short but I worked Isabelle into the story! Thanks for the suggestion!

Inside some businessman’s office is a top of the line safe. The only light in the office is the beam of a penlight on the dial. Gloved hands spin the dial, feeling for "contact points", areas on the dial where a slight resistance can be felt — if you have the touch. Alec Lightwood holds the penlight in his teeth while trying to crack the safe.

 

He manipulates the dial. Click. He grabs the safe's lever and swings the heavy steel door open, his face a mixture of pride and relief. As he turns away from the safe the lights to office turn on. When he looks up he sees two cops lurking in the doorway. “You always work in the dark?” Cop one says

 

“Buzz of the fluorescents throws me off. She's all yours.” Alec waves to the safe as he’s packing his gear

 

The cops come closer “Damn. Chris Perley couldn't crack it. Neither could Michael Hoyt.”

 

Alec smiles at him “Now you know who to call first.”

 

“You're expensive, Alec. Those guys cut us a break on subpoena jobs. Goodwill, community service. . .”

 

“Well I do it for the money. I'll send you the bill.” Alec zips his duffel

 

“Don't you want to see what's inside?”

 

Alec swings his duffel over his shoulder “I never look inside. Bye boys.”

 

Alec climbs into his 1960 Mini Cooper S., a worldwide motoring icon. Its shape crouches low to the ground and its tiny 10-inch wheel-at-each-corner gives it the legendary Mini look. If when you see its headlights and classic grille it doesn't bring a smile to your face, then you've got no automobile soul.

 

Alec takes on the road like someone who loves to be behind the wheel of a car that claimed victory in the Monte Carlo Rally three times. He passes a minivan, a breeze with the Mini's quick, go-kart-like handling. He searches for a parking space on a street lined with SUVs. Sees a spot, it's not really a space, just a gap between two gas guzzlers, there's no way any car could squeeze in…. Brake. Shift. Hard turn. He parallel parks the Mini with ease right in front of his shop.

 

Antique keys and locks dominate the storefront window with the name of the shop stencilled across the glass: LIGHTWOOD LOCK AND SAFE COMPANY. Alec hops out of the Mini with a poised walk he heads inside. It is filled with old cast-iron safes he has rebuilt along with some new models.

 

Alec’s receptionist Isabelle greets him “How long?” Isabelle is Alec’s half sister, they have the same mother, a mother who never really accepted Alec’s “life choices" and kept his sister away from him. After Robert died Isabelle reached out, determined to mend their sibling bond. It’s still a work in progress but Alec is happy to have her here

 

“Four minutes, forty-three seconds. So what's on the line-up?”

 

“You're the man big brother" she says and pulls up Alec’s diary “2:00PM Home safe in Fairmount Park. Owner died and the wife never knew the combination. And Todd Milliken called. He has a prototype combination lock he wants you to test out tomorrow morning. Says he added two false contact points on the tumbler”

 

“Tell him if I don't have it opened in six minutes flat, breakfast is on me”

 

“Oh and there's a Magnus Bane in your office. He said you two know each other. And he looks pretty fine…very easy on the eyes. And he's single, I checked..."

 

Without a response, Alec heads over to his opened office door and sees Magnus fiddling with his collection of safe doors that line the shelves. “Magnus Bane” he turns around. Smiles. Charming

 

“Hi, Alexander.” If you would have told Magnus that he would spend three years searching for Sebastian, he would have said that was nothing. Cause he would have spent a lifetime looking for that bastard if he had to.

 

Alec steps inside “Refresh my memory. After you came to see me and told me what happened to my father, I told you I never wanted to see you again, didn't I?”

 

“Yeah. You did.”

 

Alec steps around his desk “So I'm a little confused…”

 

Magnus blurts out “I found him.” At first it seems that his words have no effect on Alec, but then he notices that his hands are trembling “I can tell you where he is.”

 

Alec almost whispers “I don't want to know.”

 

“Are you sure?” Alec doesn't answer. “He's in Los Angeles.” He doesn't respond. Doesn't ask him to go on, doesn't ask him not to. So he goes on... “The gold bricks he stole from us were minted in Singapore and decorated with the face of a Balinese girl. I've had my tentacles out and got a call from a friend of mine and your father's, Hodge Starkweather”

 

Alec remembers him “When I was little he would play poker at the house and drop quarters under the table for me to find”

 

“He got word from an L.A. connection named Skinny Pete that a gold dealer has been buying bricks with the Balinese girl on them, three or four at a time.” Magnus continues

 

“You ever heard the expression, cut to the chase?”

 

“Alexander, I tracked Sebastian down to an address in the Hollywood Hills. He's changed his name to Jonathan Morgenstern. And get this: he had a Worthington 1000 installed in the house before he even moved in. We both know that you don't install a Worthington 1000 unless you have something precious to guard.”

 

“Precious or not, I don't deal with ill gotten goods”

 

Magnus stares at Alec “We boosted that gold from a terrorist group that was about to trade it for bio-weapons. Now that doesn't exactly make us Robin Hood, but maybe in our own little way we were doing a good deed. Problem is, no one in my crew can handle that safe. And I need someone I can trust.”

 

“And you think that's me? Haven't you heard that I work for the other side?”

 

“What I heard is that you have your father's touch. And he was the only safecracker I knew who could open a Worthington 1000.”

 

“I'm not a safecracker. I'm a professional safe and vault technician.”

 

“You're Robert Lightwoods son. And this is our chance to set things right.”

 

That sets Alec off “Our chance?! Who do you think you are coming in here? Stealing the gold isn't going to bring my father back to life is it?!"

 

“No, it won't.”

 

“Then get out.”

 

“Alright. But please, Alexander think about it”  he walks out of the shop and starts down the sidewalk.

 

Jace appears out of the crowd and is walking next to him “How'd it go with the kid?”

 

Magnus rolls his eyes at the “kid" part and is about to tell Jace he and Alec are the same age but says instead “I'm working on it”

 

“I don't want him on the crew, Magnus.”

 

“Gotta have him. Important piece of the puzzle.”

 

“Come on Magnus there has to be someone else. What about Ragnor Fell?”

 

“Doing ten long at Levinworth.”

 

“Caterina Loss?”

 

“Chemo.”

 

“Lucian Graymark?”

 

“Found Jesus.”

 

Jace stops Magnus “I don't want a civilian to screw this up.”

 

“He has the skill. And the motivation.”

 

“Exactly. he's emotional. You know what happens when emotion gets into it.”

 

“Don't kid yourself, Jace,  It's emotional for all of us at this point..”


	6. Nightmare

Their waiting for their table inside a very expensive restaurant, Raj has his back to the bar. He's a blue blood trial lawyer with an ego that has more horsepower than a Ferrari

 

“It's all in my patented sideways glance. Like this...” He gives a sideways glance to Alec; it's their first date. “I hit each person on the jury with one of these. We make contact. And I know exactly what they're doing. Undressing me with their eyes”

 

They are now being escorted to their table “I see... What a nightmare” Someone bumps into Alec, a mumbled, "Excuse me." Nightmare continues... 

 

“The case is all but won” Raj continues as they sit down “That's why in jury selection I choose as many gay men and beautiful women as possible. Except lesbians, of course. I can tell in sixty seconds if they're a lesbian. Want to know how I know?”

 

“If they don't undress you with their eyes?”

 

“Precisely. Like that waitress right there. See? She's looking at me right below my belt. Definitely not a lesbian” A waitress is indeed looking below Raj's belt. But Alec notices that she was only looking because Raj's zipper is all the way down.

 

Alec smiles “Your fly…”

 

“I am fly” Raj interrupts “And I'm da bomb. Just wait until later tonight.”

 

Suddenly a busboy stumbles and a tray of drinks fall, soaking Raj's suit in red wine. “Oh, man. I'm sorry.”

 

Raj is livid “You should be. Moron. What the hell's wrong with you?”

 

“It was an accident. I'm very sorry.”

 

“Where's the manager? I am not paying to have this suit cleaned. Damn.” He looks at Alec “I'm going to . . . I don't believe this.”

 

He starts off to the bathroom and as soon as the space he was occupying empties, Magnus fills it “I think your date's going pretty well, what do you think?”

 

Alec shoots him a look that could reverse global warming “What are you doing here?”

 

“What do you mean? I come here all the time.”

 

“I don't think so.” Alec gulps his wine

 

“Sure” Magnus says pointing to random people “Lawyers, judges, my kind of crowd. See that gentleman there, he sentenced me to 90 days in county once. We need to talk.”

 

“No, you need to listen. I want you to leave. Got it?”

 

“Hey, I paid valet parking prices to get in here, not to mention a twenty spot to the busboy to spill that drink on Mister Zipper.”

 

“You — I don't believe this. You paid someone to spill that drink?”

 

“Actually, you paid for it.” Magnus returns his wallet. “Didn't notice it was me who bumped into you earlier? Anyway, I was hoping we could get to know each other a little better before we leave for Los Angeles. I already booked your flight…”

 

“You truly are a fatuous, odious man.”

 

Magnus leans in closer “I have no idea what you just said, but I like the sound of it.”

 

“Well maybe you'll understand this. Hit the road, Jack or you'll be sorry cause I'll kick you in the nuts so hard that your voice will be as high as that woman’s heels.” he means it to.

 

“I'm beginning to worry about this whole relationship”

 

“I'll let you in on a secret. You can't have a relationship with a pickpocket, gold robber, or any kind of thief”

 

Magnus looks away, lets him have his point. This whole thing is getting pretty heated so when he turns back to him, he uses a whole new approach. His emotions are genuine “Robert wasn't just a man I crewed up with, he was my friend, he was the closest thing to a father I ever had. I wish to God I could bring him back. But all I can do is go after this guy, the guy that killed him, and hit him where he lives.”

 

Alec feels the honesty in his words but before he can reply, they're interrupted by “Everything alright, Alec?” Raj is back, red wine splotched on his suit.

 

“Fine. Raj. Magnus . Magnus was just saying goodbye.”

 

But for now, Magnus is just staring at Raj, boring into to him...

 

Raj finally speaks up “Can I help you with something?”

 

“Oh, sorry. I was just undressing you with my eyes.” And with that, Magnus goes. Alec can't help but smile.

 

Alec gets home to his condo, having shed his nightmare of a date. He goes to his room and goes through a drawer and pulls out a package he hasn't looked at for years. He opens it. Inside is the beautiful watch that his father bought him in Italy. It brings tears to his eyes. "Fuck it" He pulls out his phone

 

Magnus lies in bed, can't sleep. His phone rings. He picks up. “Hello.”

 

“I'm in this for one thing, Magnus, and one thing only. I want to see the look on his face when his gold is gone. He took my father from me, I'm taking this; it's the best I can do. Ok?”

 

“Ok. Pick me up tomorrow and I’ll introduce you to the rest of the crew.”


	7. Jack Daniels & L.A.

Alec's Mini passes, weaves, tucks in between cars. He drives like a madman. Magnus feels like he's inside a video game “I see Drive Defensively is your motto”

 

“Don't worry. Jack Daniels never let me down” He slaps the dashboard of his car.

 

“By the way you drive, I'm not surprised you named your car after a bottle of whiskey. Left.”

 

“Jack Daniels was chief engineer of the Mini. And I drive it exactly the way it was meant to be driven.” He whips down the avenue

 

“Another left”

 

He hangs a left “We're going in circles. Who's tailing you this week?”

 

“The possibilities are endless”

 

Alec parks the Mini in the middle of the huge, empty lot that is near the airport. He looks around “Where are they?”

 

“We're a little early. I didn't expect us to get here quite that fast.” As if on queue a Vespa pulls into the lot, headed their way. It's Simon. Magnus starts the introductions. “There… That's Simon. Gearhead. He's who really invented Snapchat”

 

And now they see a monster pick-up truck bouncing into the lot, music thumping from its Alpine at ear-bleeding levels. “That’s Raphael. Explosives. He lost fifty percent of his hearing in grade school when he blew up a toilet with an M80”

 

And now a rumbling in the distance. Alec looks. Sees a car streaking their way, almost like a mirage in the heat waves coming off the pavement. Closer. Faster. A classic Mustang. Its engine rumbles like a Jackhammer. It's had some serious custom work done to it. “Jace. Premier wheel man. He once drove all the way to L.A. just so he could set the record for longest freeway chase. Smashed the mark by twelve minutes. He got a hundred and ten love letters sent to his jail cell from women who saw him on TV” 

 

As the cars converge in the parking lot “And what about you?” Alec asks

 

“I've been a thief since I had baby teeth.” He doesn't elaborate, just gets out of the car to meet the others

 

Doors open simultaneously. Everyone’s out. The crew eyes Alec, which makes him very nervous. Thankfully Magnus gets right down to business. “This is Alec. He's working with us on this one. IDs?”

 

Jace hands out fake driver's licenses. Alec barely looks at his but smiles when he hears the others comment on theirs

 

Simon reads his “Ezekiel J. Russo. Finally a cool name for a cool dude"

 

Raphael isn't so happy with his “220 pounds? Try 180”

 

Magnus chuckles at them “phones?”

 

Simon reaches into his satchel and hands out the burner phones “they are all programmed with your names and numbers”

 

Magnus gives everyone their airline tickets. All separate flights. They will all check into different hotels as well. They go over some details and part for the night. They will reconvene at Magnus’s hotel tomorrow in LA.

 

 

 

Magnus hails a taxi at the airport. He climbs in and gives the driver the address and then pulls out his burner phone and checks on the rest of the crew. Everyone has made it to L.A. and has either already checked into their hotels or are on their way from the airport. He sends a group text telling them to meet at his hotel in two hours.

 

A little over two hours later the five of them now sit in chairs on the balcony of Magnus’s hotel room, Shutters, it has a Victorian beach house feel and is oceanfront. His room has a sweeping view of the Pacific. The sun is in its death throes, bruising the sky a coiling purple and orange. Magnus is getting lost in its beauty and is only pulled back to reality when he hears Jace clear his throat “you ok?”

 

He gives Jace a nod and says to the group “We need to get a video blueprint of the interior. We're not going into this place blind. I’ve borrowed a UHaul truck from a friend, it should have everything we need already setup. Raphael, you take the first surveillance shift. Who goes in, who goes out, levels of security, you know the drill… we need to find an in"

 

Raphael nods “You got it.”

 

“Simon, I want audio surveillance on his phones. Landlines and mobiles”

 

Simon opens his laptop “Landline is easy. I'll hack into the phone company's central office remote observance monitoring system and fool it into thinking there's a legal tap on the line. Reroute the digital copies of his calls to our own listening post. Mobile may be a little more complicated but I’ll work something out"

 

“How long?”

 

“I'll burn through the night, have it up and running before morning.”

 

“Good. Jace we need to know how long to get from Sebastian’s house to Union Station downtown.”

 

“No problemo.”

 

“Alec. How much time will you need with the safe?”

 

Without thinking he says “I'll have it open in five minutes flat”

 

Jace huffs “don’t be cocky. It's not the same as opening a safe for the cops. Your heart will be pounding in your ears. Perspiration on your fingertips. It's a whole different ball game.”

 

“You just get me to the safe, I'll open it.” He’s proud of how confident he sounds. Truth be told he’s nervous as fuck. After all, he's about to steal from someone else. He's about to become the one thing he hated about his father. 


	8. Dogs and GQ

The next day found everyone ready to figure out each part of the heist.

 

Jace and Simon out in traffic. Jace in his car with a stopwatch and map on his passenger seat while Simon was astride on a motorcycle with a stopwatch around his neck and map in his side compartment. Though he was on a bike, Simon was behind Jace as they stopped at a stop light. The light turned to a green arrow and Simon heard Jace yell to the guy in front of him, "Hey, it's a green!"  Simon revved his engine and moved around both cars to clear the intersection so he wouldn't have to wait, all the while laughing at Jace's misfortune.

 

Raphael is in the UHaul truck which is parked on the side of the road that overlooks Sebastian’s house. Magnus’s friend had converted it into a surveillance vehicle, the back outfitted with monitors and surveillance equipment. He peers through binoculars and says his notes into a recorder. His binoculars focus in on the fence that surrounds the perimeter of the property “We've got an anti-scaling fence. Hardened, electroplated steel. Hacksaw won't work. We'll need Nitramon.” He continues to look around the property “Armed guard. 9MM semi-automatic in the holster. Security booth is accessible and ideal for a triple charger chemical grenade” and then he spots their downfall “SHIT”

 

Raphael calls Magnus in a panic “he’s got dogs. Four. Rottweiler’s prowling the grounds.”

 

“So? We’ve dealt with dogs before”

 

“Maybe you’ve dealt with dogs. I don’t deal with dogs. I had a bad experience”

 

“I don’t see what the big deal is” Magnus can’t help but be amused

 

Raphael pulls his phone away from his ear and holds it in front of his mouth “I HAD. A BAD. EXPERIENCE!”

 

Magnus is laughing at this point “ok someone else will deal with 'em when the time comes. Try and calm down, I’m on my way to relieve you"

 

Raphael hangs up and tosses his phone on the passenger seat and stares at the dogs “ok. I’m ok. They can’t get to me here. They’re behind a fence and can’t see me.” Someone catches his eye. It’s Sebastian. He’s clutching what appears to be a very heavy duffle bag. He watches Sebastian walk towards his car: an Aston Martin Vanquish. It's the first time he's seen Sebastian in three years.

 

He continues speaking “17:25. There he is. He's gained 10 pounds living off our money. And Jace you're going to be pissed when you see his wheels.” Raphael watches the security guard hit a switch in the guard booth. The gate rises like the blade of a guillotine in reverse. The Vanquish zooms away. Raphael starts taking digital photos with a telephoto camera and loads them to the laptop for Simon and the crew to go over.

 

At the Peninsula Hotel, Alec lies on a lounge chair in his swimming trunks under a cabana, reading a copy of GQ. He might as well enjoy the warmth of the sun and the cool waters of the pool while he can because if their caught it means jail. His mind then wonders if they would all go to the same jailhouse if caught; he definitely wouldn’t mind sharing a cell with Magnus. He shakes his head at that thought and goes back to his magazine. Of course what he’s really reading is the owner's manual for the Worthington 1000 safe which he's inserted in the folds of GQ.

 

On the other side of town Sebastian pulls up to the coin & bullion shop. It’s late and the shop is closed. He bangs a fist against the steel security door. The steel door rises up and a Spanish man named Lorenzo unlocks another door. He is the gold dealer that Hodge Starkweather told Magnus about.

 

Lorenzo greats him “You're right on time”

 

Lorenzo is 40, maybe, it’s hard to tell, and like many in the gold trade, there isn't a conspiracy theory that he doesn't embrace. As they make their way to a back room, he keeps his mouth in overdrive “All those poor bastards out there putting their life savings in banks and S&Ls and mutual funds. What do they think? that when the collapse comes they can depend on the government? I don't think so”

 

Sebastian motions to a security camera that looms down on them “Is the camera off?”

 

“Of course. Just like you said. I never tape you, you can see for yourself.” Sebastian sees the red light is off. He lays the duffel bag on a table, unzips it, pulls out three 25 pound gold bricks with the face of a Balinese Girl stamped on each one.

 

As Lorenzo inspects them he continues “Governments are nothing more than puppets on the strings of the Trilateral Commission with their twisted gods” he retrieves a briefcase, opens it, presenting Sebastian with stacks of Ben Franklins: $100,000 worth. As Sebastian inspects the cash Lorenzo continues with his rant “I mean, it's so obvious that in a world where NAFTA can overturn the Supreme Court, not to mention Microsoft's nefarious financial machinations, this, is our only refuge —gold. That and a little walking around money.”

 

Sebastian closes the briefcase and leaves.


	9. Green Lights

The crew walks along the pathways of Japanese gardens that wind along outside Yamashiro restaurant. It's a breath-taking view from high up in the Hollywood Hills.

 

Simon starts “the photos show a security pad on the front door; Advent Home Navigator Hybrid System. Monitors 132 points for intrusion, fire, and environmental hazards Best way around it is to get a back door password, trip the alarm during the heist, then call it in as a false alarm”

 

Jace speaks up "It's either bad traffic, peak traffic, or slit-your-wrists traffic"

 

"You know, they do have the Metrorail, guys. You could always use that” Raphael commented

 

"That'd be ideal for carrying a shit ton of gold, wouldn't it, genius?” Jace smarted back at him.

 

"What's your guesstimate" Magnus asks

 

"Last 20 times I've done the journey, you've got an average of 32 minutes and a top time of 50 minutes" Jace said sitting down "But if we had green lights all the way, we could do it in 14 minutes”

 

"Wait, you couldn't get through traffic?" Alec mocked Jace

 

"I could" Simon said with a huge grin. Jace glared at the both of them as they smiled and looked away.

 

"We could do anything with green lights all the way," Raphael prompted

 

“Then we'll travel like Rockefeller.” They don't know where Magnus is going with this, but they've been around him long enough to know it's going somewhere. “When cars first started catching on, workers on tall ladders would use these swivelling coloured boards for traffic signals. Now whenever Rockefeller would take the drive from his mansion to his office on Wall Street, the workers would make sure that he got green boards all the way.”

 

“How do we get all green lights?” Alec asks

 

Magnus smiles “Simon?”

 

Simon smiles back “Let me see what I can do”

 

Jace grins at that but thinks out loud “We still need an in to get the video blueprint.”

 

Simon throws out ideas “Carpet cleaners? Gutter cleaners? Flower delivery? Pool cleaners?"

 

“We'll never get by the guard unless they're certain it's legit.” Magnus states “I'm thinking cable TV. We cut his cable, he calls the cable company. We show up. Send a cable technician into the house with a pinhole video camera while we get a feed through an RF antenna.”

 

“Who plays cable technician?” Jace wants to know and adds “Sebastian thinks we're all dead.”

 

But Alec knows that's not exactly true. He doesn't think Alec is dead because he doesn't know him at all. Well shit... time to play with the big boys “If you're all dead, I guess I'm the man for the job.”

 

“Are you up for it?” Magnus almost whispers

 

Alec smiles at him “In for a penny, in for a pound.”


	10. F.I.N.E

Jace and Simon pull into the cable companies lot where the service trucks are, their running a little late and see technicians have already left their vans, finished with their shifts. Simon is aiming his digital camera at the exiting workers “I'm telling you, he stole the idea from me. I should've been on the cover of Wired magazine.” he shakes his head as he looks at the pictures "these aren't going to work" he mumbles 

 

Jace can’t take it “Would you clam up. You'd give a woodpecker a headache.” He nods towards one of the last workers of the day “Heads up”

 

They see a female service tech getting out of her work truck. Simon zooms his camera lens in on her Adelphia Cable work shirt. It has Sam sewn in above her right breast “Sam. Nice name. I wonder what she calls the other one.” Simon chuckles

 

Jace sounds disgusted “And it's such a mystery why you don't have a girlfriend” he cocks his head to the side, staring at Sam “Do you think Alec could fit in that shirt?”

 

“I had a girlfriend. Unfortunately even though the relationship ceased in an objective reality, it's still going on in my mind” Simon taps his head “That woman's lived in here rent-free for four years.” He takes more pictures of Sam and her truck “Okay. All we need now is a work shirt like this one and a service truck like that one. You think Alec will be able to pull it off?”

 

“I have my doubts, but there's no talking to Magnus.” 

 

“Maybe he's been inserting his hard drive into his Linux box? Clouds the judgment.”

 

“Magnus knows better than to mix business with pleasure” Jace gets out of the car “Only I'm allowed to do that”

 

“Where you going?” Simon asks

 

Jace smirks at him “To get a work shirt and a service truck.”

 

Simon watches him stroll over to Sam and strike up a conversation in the parking lot. He can't hear what's being said, but Sam smiles and twirls her hair and lest we forget, Jace is Gods gift

 

The next morning Alec is wearing Sam’s work shirt, its tight and he has to roll the sleeves because they’re too short; he walks through the cable companies parking garage before any other workers arrive. Using the key Jace made, he unlocks the door to the cable truck and gets in and drives away. He picks up Magnus and Simon and they climb into the back where they can't be seen. Alec continues to drive and then pulls over, parking down the street from Sebastian's house. Magnus gets out and quickly uses a crowbar to lift up a sidewalk cement grate that says CABLE on it. He crouches over and uses pliers to disconnect one of the cables. They drive to the UHaul and wait with the others for the call.

 

Inside the house Sebastian drifts into the kitchen for a cup of coffee. He hits the remote control for a TV. It turns on but there's nothing but snow. He goes into the living room and checks out the plasma TV. The cable's not working in here, either. He hits an intercom button on his telephone.

 

The security guard answers “What can I do for you, Mister Morgenstern?”

 

Sebastian very curtly tells him “The cable's out. Get someone over here to fix it immediately”

 

“Yes, sir.” He finds the number and dials.

 

Simon monitors a digital copy of the security guard's call that's being routed to his laptop. Then he takes off his headphones “Whoa. I've never heard the muzak version of Purple Haze before.”

 

Magnus looks over at him “When's the Appointment?”

 

"Thursday between 9 and 3." 

 

Magnus dials a number on his cell phone. The security guard answers “Hello”

 

Magnus puts on his best office voice “Yes, I'm calling from Adelphia Cable. I understand your service is out and an appointment was set up for Thursday”

 

“Yes, that’s right”

 

“Well we have a technician working in your area who finished with an appointment earlier than expected. Will someone be there for the next hour?”

 

“Sure. That'd be great. Thank you!"

 

“Our technician will see you then. Have a nice day.”

 

Magnus hangs up as Jace hands Alec the paperwork. "Here's all the paperwork you need. Just get him to sign and date at the bottom before you leave.”

 

"Let's check out the camera." Magnus took the pin camera from Simon. "Alec, try to get a 360 look at each room make sure you walk slowly or the image will streak."

 

He handed the pin back to Simon, who attempted to pin it on Alec. "Ow!"

 

"Sorry" Simon said stopping and handing the pin to Magnus again "I couldn't pin the corsage on my prom date either."

 

"Wait, you had a prom date?" Jace looked almost sceptical.

 

"It was his cousin" Raphael put in "There's cable lines in the kitchen, living room, bedroom, and the cable modem on the computer in the office."

 

"You need to locate the safe in the office." Magnus added as he pinned the camera onto Alec's shirt. He nodded.

 

"Just want you to know, I think you're very brave going in there" Jace said. "I know it won't be easy."

 

"I second that" Raphael said.

 

"Same" Simon said quietly.

 

Alec smiled and laughed under his breath. "It's gonna be fine."

 

Magnus chuckled lightly "You know what fine stands for? Freaked out, Insecure..."

 

"Neurotic and Emotional" Alec finished with him.

 

Magnus pulled back after he put the pin in place. He reaches out for Alec’s hands and gives them a squeeze "You'll be great."


	11. Opportunities

Minutes later Alec was pulling up to Sebastian’s front door. They all saw the steel blue Aston Martin sitting closest to the house. "Aston Martin Vanquish." Jace's voice was fill with hate and envy. "Looks like that bastard took my car."

 

Simon put his hand on his shoulder knowing Sebastian was two for three: Raphael's house and now Jace’s Vanquish.

 

Alec parks next to the Aston Martin and finds himself surrounded by the four Rottweiler’s. They snarl and flash their teeth outside his door until a shrill whistle yanks their attention to where Sebastian has just stepped out the front door. The dogs immediately back off.

 

Alec gets out of the truck as Sebastian walks over, smiling at him. Alec freezes as he comes face to face with the man who killed his father.

 

“It's all right. They won't bother you now.”

 

He's not sure he's going to be able to speak or pull this off then says “It's okay. I'm used to running into all sorts of dogs on my job”

 

He holds out a hand “I'm Sebastian”

 

Alec shakes his hand “Sam" he hates this, feeling his skin touch his, but he can't betray his feelings. He stands there a moment. “You want to show me the problem?”

 

“Yeah. Course. This way…”

 

Alec enters, moving his body to give the pinhole camera a full sweep of the entryway “I'd like to check the cable modem first”

 

They listen and watch as Alec walks through the house and gave out a sigh when he opened a closet door and found the safe. "There we go" Magnus said. "There's our baby. We got him."

 

"Hey, what are doing? There's nothing in there for you. It's in the office, this way" Sebastian all but yells

 

"Sorry. Usually people in houses like this want everything hidden... out of site" Alec follows him to the office and goes to the modem on the desk and pretends to work on the cable line that feeds into his computer.

 

"Look at that." Simon sounded disbelieved. "That's my NAD T770. That's... That's my stereo."

 

Sebastian stares at Alec’s ass as he bends down ”The cable guy who hooked this up weighed about 300 pounds, didn't wear any underwear, and his pants slung a little too low if you know what I mean. You’re a vast improvement”

 

He tries his best to ignore his flirtatious stare and his words “There we go. Now onto the TVs”

 

"He's hitting on him" Magnus said surprised

 

"You know what, end this shit right now. I'm going to blow this shit right off the mountain right now." Raphael said grabbing some of the things he would need and opening the door to get out.

 

"No, no, no. No, no, hey, hey, hey," Magnus said pulling him back inside. “I’ll be the first one in there to blow that son of a bitch up if he tries anything with Alec… let’s just…wait. Wait and see…” After a few moments Magnus spoke to Raphael again. "Go to the box and wait for my call" Raphael exited the van and walked over to the cable box where he waited until Magnus gave him the signal to reconnect the line.

 

Alec finishes his work on the cable connection to the plasma TV “that should do it”

 

“Is it fixed?”

 

“Turn it on and see”

 

Magnus signals Raphael to reconnect the cable

 

Sebastian turns on the TV and the picture is perfect.

 

Alec almost lets out a sigh of relief “looks like you're all set”

 

Sebastian stares at him for a moment “Have we met before?”

 

He's hoping to get out as quickly as he can. “I don't think so. Sign here, please.” he hands him the paperwork and a pen. He sees Sebastian signed it but didn't date it. “Date.”

 

“You read my mind.”

 

“Oh, no. I meant that I need you to put the date by your signature”

 

“I know what you meant.” he smiles “This might seem a little sudden, but... would you like to have dinner with me?”

 

“I don't think that'd be a very good idea.”

 

“Why? Is there some kind of cable-rule against dating customers?”

 

“No, it's my rule. I don't accept dates from men I've just met. I've only known you five minutes.”

 

“Then I guess I'll have to sabotage my cable over and over again until you get to know me better.”

 

He's being charming, and Alec has to act like he is being charming, but he really wants to throw-up.

 

“Look, I'm just talking about dinner. Friday night. It's no big deal. If you don't like me, you never have to see me again. You know I'm not going to stop until you say yes.”

 

After it was all said and done Alec sat in the service truck behind the UHaul. Magnus and Simon climb in "You okay?" Magnus placed his hand gently on Alec's arm “I know it was tough in there"

 

“He touched my hand. And he came-on to me. That slimy, disgusting _murderer_ came onto me and I had to pretend that I liked it” Alec keeps his eyes forward, gripping and un-gripping the steering wheel “You do know what this means…” he wipes a single tear away then takes Magnus’s hand in his “I've created our window of opportunity.”

 

Magnus smiles “I know. When Sebastian leaves Friday night, we go in. By the time he realizes you've stood him up, we'll be long gone with the gold.”

 

"Yeah." Alec returns his hand to the steering wheel and drives away


	12. Homeboys

While the others deal with returning the cable truck, Jace and Raphael drive to meet a man to get additional supplies.

 

“Here's our spot” Raphael says as they pull up in front of a strip joint. He pulls a switchblade out of his boot and puts it in the glove compartment. Jace gives him a questioning look “Biscuit said we'd be frisked”

 

Outside the doorway of a back room they're frisked by a burly man who is very thorough, digging hard into their crotches. Jace scowls “Y'got a great job”

 

“Pays the rent, asshole. You got a problem, talk to Skinny Pete” He opens the door to the backroom

 

They walk towards skinny Pete who is anything but skinny, he takes up an entire couch in the rear of the room. His catcher's-mitt-sized hands motion them to come closer. “Biscuit sent you?” His voice is raspy, it's like climbing ten floors effort just for this guy to get out the words.

 

“That's right” Raphael says

 

“So was I right-on about the gold bricks or what?”

 

“That's really not what I'm here to talk about. Biscuit said you could get us some supplies.”

 

Skinny Pete attempts a nod, triple-chins colliding like a train wreck “What do you need?”

 

“A four inch can of Nitramon. Nitramon primer. Detonating cord. Two triple charger chemical grenades. Launcher”

 

Skinny Pete nods “Nine p.m.”

 

“Should we hang here?” Jace asks “Check out the dancers?”

 

“Nothing's going down here. I don't shit in my own yard, do you?”

 

Jace tries not to smirk “No, but I take a whizz off the deck sometimes.”

 

With his distended belly and bursting shirt, his eyes glazing with repletion, Skinny Pete writes down an address. “Five thousand dollars. And don't be late.”

 

Later that night Jace and Raphael are driving in an unseemly part of town. Jace can’t help but feel it’s a different world, a different vibe. That feeling in the gut that you don't belong here. They pull over in front of the apartment building that Pete sent them to.

 

“What do you think?” Raphael asks

 

“I'm trying not to” Jace mumbles as they exit the car and walk up to the building. Raphael hits the buzzer for the apartment number on the paper from Pete. The door to the building buzzes in response and they go inside. Climbing the stairs they hear from behind closed doors loud TVs, crying babies, violent yelling...

 

They start down a hallway. Ahead of them a door opens and a suitcase is put in front it and the door closes. They don't even get a glance at whomever is inside. They go to the suitcase. Raphael clicks open the lock for just a peek. He sees the goods and nods. Jace starts to slide an envelope of cash under the door frame. Its sucked out of his hand by someone on the other side of the door and disappears. “Let’s get out of here"

 

Raphael carefully deposits the suitcase into the trunk of the car and closes it “Drive slow. We crash and we're a crater”

 

They get into the car and Jace keys the ignition. The beam of his headlights illuminate two homeboys then two more step out of the shadows, one right up to the passenger's door window. That one taps a 9 MM against the glass. Raphael lowers the window. The homeboy pats one hand against the faux-leather inside of the door, his other hand clutches the weapon. “What'd you put in the trunk?”

 

“Suitcase.”

 

The homeboy, bugging on crank, is not one to be fucked with “Just gimme the keys before I pop a cap in your head.”

 

Jace takes the trunk key off the chain and passes it over to Raphael...who nervously drops it onto the floor.

 

“Hurry up!” Homeboy yells

 

Raphael reaches down for the key...but in the flash of an eye...moving so fast it almost doesn't register...he yanks his switchblade from his boot, unleash its blade, and stab it down into the homeboy's hand. The knife goes through his hand and lodges into the faux-leather interior of the door. The homeboy suffers as Raphael whacks the gun out of his other hand while Jace keys the ignition and guns it.

 

The other homeboys are already popping off shots at the car with semi-automatic handguns. Raphael ducks low as glass shatters. Bullets slam into the trunk, illuminating the darkness with streaks of light from the bullet holes. They barely miss the suitcase filled with explosives.

 

The homeboy is still attached to the car door by the knife. His legs scurry to keep up with the moving vehicle but it's going too fast so pretty soon he's being dragged. Bullets whiz by him. He cries out in agony until Raphael has the time to yank out the knife and the homeboy rolls away on the pavement.

 

The car makes a sharp right at the next block and pulls over. The U-Haul is waiting for them. They get out of the car and open its trunk. Raphael sees the bullet holes that surround the suitcase. An inch closer and they would've been a crater “Christ.”

 

They get in the UHaul with the suitcase. Magnus is behind the wheel, he's been waiting for them. He hits the gas and they take off, leaving the shot-up car behind. “Looks like that went without a hitch.” Magnus remarks


	13. Loser's Paranoia

The next afternoon everyone was hanging out in Magnus's room at the hotel. Alec looking over plans for the safe, Magnus was looking over storage and getaway plans while occasionally looking over Simon’s shoulder at the edited loop of the exterior and interior of Sebastian’s house playing on his laptop.

 

Raphael and Jace sat at a table, near Magnus, playing poker "Make sure you shuffle them cards this time, Raphael” Jace said as he refilled his and Raphael’s coffee cups and returned to his seat. "Don't deal when my back is turned”

 

"You've got that loser's paranoia” Raphael said to him as he picked up his own cards

 

Magnus got up to refill his coffee cup "Hey, Simon” he calls from across the room "What's the distance between the front door and the vault?"

 

Simon answered after quickly typing out on his keyboard "it's farther than you want to carry it. 500 yards"

 

"Yeah, so, how do we get the gold from the vault to the getaway car” Magnus asked

 

Alec gets up and goes over to the laptop “How wide is the hallway?”

 

Simon pulls up the video that Alec got of the hallway and plays it on the laptop “Only six feet.”

 

Alec looks over to Magnus “looks like we need Jack Daniels" His idea brings a smile to his face.

 

“Minis?” Magnus looks at him

 

“We could rumble right up the front steps, bring the getaway car right to the vault, and then straight to Union Station.”

 

Jace likes it “lets get a mini and setup a test track in the warehouse”

 

Magnus nodded in agreement. "I have a Mini in a storage unit not far from here. I can go get it. You all work on setting up the track in the warehouse and I’ll meet you there"

 

Once Magnus arrived at the warehouse, he made his way over to the crew and tosses the keys to Alec “why don’t you do the run through"

 

Alec makes his way to car with a huge grin. Jace is about to protest but Magnus puts his hand up to stop him “trust me, he knows how to handle a mini"

 

“Let’s get some weight in there.” Magnus and Jace finished packing the Mini with weights and shut the back hatch. "Okay, you've got your gold, let’s see you get out of the house” Jace told Alec.

 

Alec sped through the course that Simon had set up. He drifted to a stop right next to Jace, got out and threw the keys to him. Jace caught the keys, mouth open, gaping at Alec. He finally spoke “I think this is the first time in my life that I’ve been turned on by a man"

 

Magnus patted him the back with an I told you so look. "We need more cars to handle the weight."

 

"Looks like I'm going to need some help with the custom work, too” Jace commented. "I know someone for the job"

 

Magnus hummed “how many more, do you think?"

 

"I'd say at least two more” Jace said looking at the back end where a piece of the bumper had broken off when Alec drove down the flight of stairs. "A casing for storing the gold should be in order, too, for the inside. Pack it, drive it, then roll it like luggage when we get to the train."

 

"Do it. Take Raphael and Simon with you. Be back here as soon as you can and get your mechanic here as fast as possible.”

 

Later that day Jace, Raphael and Simon pulled up in Minis, Raphael and Simon in one and Jace and his mechanic in the other. They all got out and went over to Magnus . "Magnus, this is Luke."

 

"Hey, what's up?" Luke shook Magnus’s hand.

 

"Jace tells me you got real talent. We need some body work done." Magnus led the way over to the Minis "We need to pack up to 2,700 pounds of cargo in these Minis with enough suspension and horsepower to outrun anything chasing us."

 

"2,700 pounds of what?"

 

"Of whatever” Magnus said sharply

 

Luke shrugged. "So, what do I get out of this mystery deal?"

 

"$50,000"

 

Luke nodded his head and looked over the Minis, inspecting them. "All right."


	14. Javier

Sebastian bangs a fist against the steel security door that covers the closed store. The steel door rises up and once again Lorenzo unlocks another door and nods his head at Sebastian “You're early.”

 

“And I'm in a hurry, okay?”

 

It doesn't seem to matter if Sebastian's in a hurry or not, Lorenzo still runs at the mouth while heading into the back room “Of course the Florida vote rigging was a CIA and Mob cooperation…"

 

Sebastian rolls his eyes with total disinterest “That a fact?”

 

“You want facts? Fact: CIA officials were allowed free — and illegal — access to official election material”

 

Sebastian puts his duffel bag down on the table. It thuds. Once again, he pulls out three gold bricks that each weigh 25 pounds.

 

“Now given the sordid history in Miami of joint ventures between Central Intelligence and the Mob, which led to the unsuccessful attempts to kill Fidel Castro and the successful assassination of your President John F. Kennedy, this conjunction raises numerous red flags.”

 

“And I'd love to hear more about it, but like I said...”

 

“Don't worry, we'll have you out in no time. The cash is on its way.”

 

Sebastian cocks his head, as if he could not have heard right “On its way?”

 

“My cousin is bringing it over.”

 

“Your cousin? He's on his way?”

 

“Yes. Cousin. Javier. Don't worry, he will be here any minute.”

 

Sebastian looks up to the security camera “The tape's off?”

 

“Of course. Believe me, he doesn't want to be on video, either.”

 

“Lorenzo. Didn't I tell you, many times, that I never wanted to meet with anyone but you?”

 

Lorenzo sweats a bit “I know. But it's his cash. He uses me to launder money. I'm just a middleman.”

 

“And a middleman is supposed to stay in the middle.” 

 

“But you were early. Please. Don't worry. It will be fine. My cousin's a cool guy. Like I am.”

 

“What you are, is a Dixie cup.”

 

Lorenzo smiles quizzically, not sure if he's being complimented or insulted “Dixie cup?”

 

Before the words are out of Lorenzo's mouth, Sebastian grabs one of the 25 pound gold bricks and slaps it across Lorenzo's face, shattering his jaw. Lorenzo's falls to the floor and Sebastian lifts the brick again and rams it down onto his head with an ugly THUD. And again. And again. He then takes the gold brick, slathered in blood and places it back in his duffle bag.

 

 

Lorenzo's cousin, Javier, stares down at the corpse. Sebastian is long gone. Javier kneels down by the body and starts sobbing. He says a prayer before he leaves to make his way to their boss.

 

Javier walks through a living room, past some lighting equipment and a video camera and he gets just enough of a look to realize that a porno is being shot here but he couldn't care less as he makes his way into the kitchen where his boss, Victor Aldertree, the owner of this house, is eating a bowl of Frosted Flakes at the kitchen table. “My cousin Lorenzo was beaten to death.”

 

Victor looks up from his cereal “By who?”

 

“That's what I'm going to find out.”

 

“And what will you do when you find this piece of shit who killed your cousin?”

 

“I'll hack off his limbs and bury him while he's still alive.”

 

“Okay. Let me call my police connection"

 

Javier nods and takes a seat at the breakfast bar

 

Aldertree pats Javier on the shoulder “My detective says a guy who works the counter at your cousin's shop told him that someone named Skinny Pete had been asking around about gold bricks with the face of a Balinese girl on them. Same gold bricks your cousin was buying.”

 

“Time to have a talk with this Skinny Pete"


	15. Square Tipped Nails

The three Minis are parked inside: one red, one white, one blue. Jace and Alec are doing custom work under the hoods. Simon is wearing the strap-on laptop and typing away. Raphael squeezes silver Haliburton suitcases into the Minis' trunks as Magnus enters “How are our matchbox cars?”

 

Jace looks up “Souped.”

 

Alec can’t help but add “Don't let their size fool you. These were rally cars back in the day. 135 mph, 155 horsepower —”

 

Simon interrupts him “Do I get to drive one?”

 

Jace gives a flat “No"

 

“Why not?”

 

“Because you can't navigate your way out of a parking lot. Here's your ride” Jace pulls a blanket off a Vespa.

 

Simon points at Raphael “But he ran into me.”

 

“He's not driving either” Jace looks to Alec “You ever got a speeding ticket?”

 

Alec grins “Let's put it this way: I can only get insurance through companies that advertise on TV at 3:00 in the morning”

 

Jace gives an impressive nod “You drive. I drive. Magnus drives.”

 

Magnus can’t help but notice the look Jace gives Alec and he thinks he almost feels jealous. Shaking that thought out of his mind “I got us spots for three cars on a car carrier and five first class seats. Train 59 from Union Station to New Orleans."

 

“That's N'Or'lins, Yankee.” Raphael teases

 

Magnus ignores Raphael quip “What's the word on Rockefeller?”

 

“The Traffic Control Centre is on the top floor of a building on Olympic and Grand. They get their data from pavement loop detectors and video image vehicle detectors. That info is fused together by specially designed algorithms to predict traffic conditions and control the traffic lights. So all I have to do now is change the data by creating my own algorithm.”

 

“What can I do to help?”

 

“We need to go to Traffic Control, I need to hard-wire into the mainframes”

 

“Let’s go"

 

Thirty minutes later finds Magnus and Simon on the rooftop of a towering building. Magnus adroitly picks the lock to an access door and they climb down a short set of steps into the maintenance room. From an equipment bag, Magnus pulls out a silent power drill and uses it to remove an access panel from the AC vent.

 

Magnus leads, crawling through this tight space, his path illuminated by the thin beam of a penlight. They make their way to a room that’s an impressive high-tech setting with a half-dozen workers overseeing the large traffic information monitors that display multiple images. On the other side of the room there’s 70" tall mainframe computers are housed and running.

 

They move fast. Magnus removes the rear panels of the mainframes while Simon adeptly hard-wires his laptop into the computers. The laptop's screen lights up.

 

Magnus fits two false panels where the rear panels of the mainframes used to be. Simon pulls an innocent looking filing box out of his equipment bag. He places the box on a nearby shelf where it enjoys line-of-sight to the false panels. He punches a key on his laptop and the false panels and the filing box quietly clicks into action, communicating with his laptop via infrared. His laptop now shows a guilt-work of thumbnail views from the traffic information monitors.

 

Typing commands, Simon is clearly operating on a higher bandwidth than the rest us “B4 X TTratio, where Bi are Fisher's linear discriminant function coefficients, SpdRat is the speed ratio, and TTratio is the travel time ratio.”

 

Magnus is looking around nervously “have no idea what you're doing. Just do it fast.”

 

“There.” Simon hits the enter button. “We own this place.”

 

Magnus and Simon walk back in the warehouse to find Jace and Luke doing some final tune-up. Raphael is loading a triple charger chemical grenade into a launcher. And Alec… is filing his nails? Magnus looks at him like what the hell are you doing…

 

As if reading his mind Alec says “You want the safe cracked, don't you?”

 

“Yeah…”

 

“Then I have to have perfect nails. Square tips have a more even surface area. Better grip, no slipping.”

 

“Are you making this shit up?” Magnus can’t believe what he’s hearing

 

Alec shrugs one shoulder “I just let you in on a valuable trade secret.”

 

Simon who started fixing glitches on his computer program “Magnus”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Sebastian called to confirm a 7:30 reservation at Agp's. And as for your getaway, not even Rockefeller had it so good.”

 

“Alright everyone showtime"

 

The three Minis pull out of the warehouse and head off down the road. The U-Haul follows. Magnus is leading the pack. He wears a headset and mic. “Radio check.”

 

Jace, with Raphael in the passenger seat, is the first to answer “Gotcha, boss.”

 

Alec follows behind Jace's Mini “Loud and clear.”

 

Simon, driving the UHaul with his Vespa in the back, is last to answer “Check.” He parks the idling UHaul on the side of the street about a mile down from Sebastian's house. The Vespa is pulled from the back and parked behind it.

 

Simon finally sees the Aston Martin cruising down the winding road. As it passes by he speaks into his headset “For those about to rock, we salute you.”

 

From side streets, the Minis converge on the road and head up towards Sebastian's house. Magnus can feel the adrenaline already starting to course through his body. “This is it, guys. Moment of truth.” He takes a sharp curve and the moment that Sebastian's house should come into view he hits the brakes, his expression turning to complete surprise.

 

The neighbour across the street from Sebastian is having the biggest party in town. The road is filled with parked cars and arriving guests. Ain't no way they're blowing the gate, launching chemical grenades or in any way robbing Sebastian's house in the midst of this.

 

As he takes this in, there's a knock on the window. He turns. Sees a uniformed valet and rolls down the window. “Are you hear for the Baxter party, sir?”

 

“No. I’m just gonna…” he rolls his window up and the three Minis pull tight U-turns and head back the way they came. He slaps his hand against the steering wheel, fuming. “Shit. Alec?”

 

He already knows what he's going to say. “I know. I've got a date tonight.”

 

“You'll have to fake it. Laugh at his jokes. You need him to ask you out again.”


	16. Surprised

Inside Ago restaurant Alec and Sebastian sit at an intimate table sipping wine. It’s a bit too posh for Alec’s taste but here he is, laughing at something Sebastian said, faking his way through the date “You really make me laugh.” Sebastian takes the lie like the compliment he wants him to think it is.

 

“So here's what I have lined up for after dinner. We'll go to Club Deep. The Aston Martin always gets me to the front of the line. We'll do a little dancing...”

 

Alec takes this as his opportunity to get a second date “Not tonight. I don't want to be out late.” He doesn’t add that the only dancing he wants to do with him is inside a boxing ring

 

“Why? Cable company curfew?”

 

“Let's just say I've made some wrong calls in the past. I like to take things slow, cautious. Next time. . .” He wonders how many hints he has to give to get a second date out of this murderous scumbag

 

“I understand. You have nothing to worry about. You can trust me.” Sebastian actually sounds sincere

 

Alec smiles a little at a memory forcing it’s way through “I trust everyone. It's the devil inside them that I don't trust.”

 

That saying strikes Sebastian “That's an interesting saying.” He looks at Alec closely, really closely. “There's only one person I've ever heard say that. Used to say it all the time.”

 

Alec’s smile almost disappears because of course he used to hear it from his father “oh yeah? Who was that?”

 

Under the table, Sebastian grabs Alec by the wrist, squeezes it like a vise “A man named Robert Lightwood. Where did you pick up that phrase?”

 

“Ow. I don't remember. You're hurting me.” Alec is no slouch, he knows how to defend himself but he’s still playing the game, hopeful he can act his way out of this. It’s taking everything in him not to grab the butter knife and plunge it into Sebastian’s eye socket

 

“Robert Lightwood was a thief. And he had a son. About your age. He told me that he took over a safe and lock company that he used as a front.”

 

Panic and rage are slowly starting to set in. His mind is racing “Let go of my wrist. What is wrong with you? It's just a saying.”

 

Sebastian’s voice is calm, eerily calm. So at ease that watching them you'd think this was pleasant dinner conversation “No wonder I liked you right away. Just like I liked your old man, right up until the moment I shot him in the head.” Alec flinches at that as Sebastian keeps on “Now tell me who you're working with and tell me the plan. Do it now or we'll go for a ride and I'll break every bone in your body.”

 

Alec has had enough, he can’t keep this up anymore. He pulls his wrist away and intentionally knocks over a glass of wine. An emergency signal...

 

Magnus, Raphael, Jace and Simon appear around the table. Sebastian is shocked to see the men he left for dead three years ago standing before him, very much alive “Looks like the gangs all here"

 

Alec stands up beside Magnus and Jace “you know the only thing worst than a thief Sebastian? A coward”

 

Sebastian relaxes back in his chair “then you should have seen the way your old man begged for his life"

 

Alec loses it! He surges forward, fists formed ready to punch him senseless. He’s caught by his waist by Jace pulling him back and by Magnus pushing on his chest “Alexander, he's not worth it.” Jace pulls Alec outside, followed by Raphael and Simon. Magnus watches them leave then sits in the chair Alec previously occupied “Something wrong, Sebastian? You look like you want to call Ghostbusters.”

 

“Not bad Magnus. Really. Not bad"

 

“You have no idea how hard it is for me not to reach across this table and kill you with my bare hands"

 

“You know better than that Magnus, can’t let emotions into these things"

 

“Tell me it wasn’t about emotions when you shot Robert and left us all for dead"

 

“That wasn’t about emotion. It was about a lot of gold and I wanted it. What’s your play here Magnus? I mean, what? You’ll try to take out my guards right? I'll hire five more. You’ll try to have Simon hack the system? But I’ll change it again tomorrow morning. And what is your final move? You gonna have Robert’s son come in and try to crack my safe? Please. I mean, that’s very poetic and all but I just don’t see it. I don’t think he’ll get anywhere near it”

 

“Same old Sebastian always thinking defensively. That’s why you were never number one… always coming in second"

 

“How do you figure that, Magnus? Please enlighten me"

 

“You got no imagination. You couldn’t even decide what to do with all that money, you had to buy what everyone else wanted"

 

“Yeah, well, try this on in your imagination that gold is gone, I’m trying to get rid of the last three bricks.”

 

“That’s bullshit"

 

“No really, it’s over Magnus. You gonna come after me for three bricks? Really? Be my guest. But your off to a really bad start, ya know? Cause you just blew the best thing you had going for you. The element of surprise”

 

Magnus, in one motion stands and reaches across the table and punches Sebastian square in the face, the hit is so hard it knocks Sebastian out of his chair onto the floor “Surprised?” gasps are heard around the restaurant “it’s over when I say its over" he takes a bread stick off the table and goes, leaving Sebastian rubbing his jaw on the floor.

 

Magnus is walking out of the restaurant, shaking the pain from his hand when he spots Alec and Jace a few metres away. As he approaches he notices Jace has his hand on Alec’s shoulder, giving it little squeezes then hears Alec say “He killed my father and he is freaking proud of it! I would kill him now if I had the chance." He pauses to let them finish, stays in the shadows, and once again wonders about this ping of jealousy he’s feeling

 

"Don't worry. All that matters is that we get the gold. Sebastian will be so depressed that he will kill himself with a stone from his monastery house."

 

Alec laughed behind the flood of tears threating to escape and he smiled to Jace "Thank you. I don't know what I would have had done if you weren't here." He gets into his car and heads to his hotel.

 

“You should really go check on him” Jace says to Magnus, knowing he was there listening “I offered to drive him but he refused, saying he wanted to be alone.”

 

“I don’t know. I mean, if he wants to be alone…”

 

“Magnus. You and I both know this is no time for him to be alone. Go"

 

“Yeah. Ok. Let’s meet tomorrow morning at my hotel room. Let Raphael and Simon know. And ask Simon to monitor Sebastian”


	17. Victory Kiss

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Smut ahead and I apologise for how awful it is. I've never written smut before and, with how stressed out it made me, I don't think I will write it again... at least not without help.

Alec reached the hotel in tears. He hurried to his room and put on his favourite jumper. Memories of his dad flooding his mind. He saw him standing there the day he got out of high school, he was so proud. He saw him when he rode on a bike for the first time, a perfect green one with reflectors on the spokes. He remembers him taking him for ice cream the day he came out, insisting they both get rainbow sherbet. He had not been there all the time but he had been there at the important events. He suddenly realises that he didn't know so much about his father. He didn't know anything of importance. Only the things he got to learn while he was here. He had spent more time with Magnus than with him. His thoughts are disturbed by a knock on the door and he just knew it was Magnus. He let him in and went to sit on the bed. He didn't feel good enough to smile so he just waited for him to say something.

 

Magnus sat down on the bed next to him. "How you doing?" he asked gently.

 

He nodded "Good. Considering the fact that I'm doing all of this for a man I barely knew." He now understands why he had behaved so badly against Magnus. Magnus was the wished son and Alec was the son he always had but never saw. "You know what bothered me all those years Magnus? It was that whenever he'd call me to tell me he was on some job, I knew you were right there with him." he bumped his shoulder with his own and came to his conclusion "You got to know him a lot better than I did."

 

Magnus, quiet until now, spoke with sincerity. "Just because he was around me more doesn't mean he wasn't thinking about you all the time."

 

"Would be nice if it was true."

 

"It is true,” confirmed Magnus "He always regretted not having been a good enough father for you Alexander"

 

He smiled, deeply happy to have such confirmation. He knew it was true because Magnus would never lie, not about that. He looked down and noticed that Magnus’s right hand was swollen and red "What did you do to your hand?"

 

He sighed heavily "I punched Sebastian" he said in a mortified tone. Like he was sorry that he had to punch him. The truth was that Magnus disliked violence and did everything to avoid it but in this case, it had been necessary.

 

"Why do you get to punch him and I don't?" he questioned in frustration.

 

"'Cause those hands are too valuable” he replied with serious concern. Alec chuckled, even though it wasn't a joke. Magnus stroked his hand up and down on Alec's back and pulled him close and kissed him on the forehead "You OK?"

 

"Yeah."

 

"Ok" Magnus stood up and bid Alec goodnight and went for the door. Halfway across the room, Alec called him "Magnus?"

 

He turned around "Yes?"

 

"Thank you. Thank you for everything."

 

Magnus hurried back to him and kneeled to be face to face. He took his face in his hands and pressed a quick kiss on his lips "You never have to thank me for anything. You deserve to be happy, Alexander. Your father would have wanted this too."

 

Alec didn't answer but instead threw himself in his arms. He put his arms behind his neck and pulled him in for another kiss. This one deeper.

 

Magnus was taken aback but kept the balance and put his arms around him, pulling him up so they were both standing, holding his body tightly against his.

 

They kissed for what seemed like hours but was really only a couple of minutes, Alec pulled back for air and looked Magnus in the eyes "Magnus, I…"

 

"Shhh." I understand. I’ll go and see you tomorrow."

 

“NO!” Alec said a little to loudly “I mean, stay, please. If you want. Because I do. Want you, that is”

 

Instead of a verbal response Magnus pulled Alec in for another kiss. Alec smiled lustfully as he pulls off Magnus's shirt. Alec pushed his lips against Magnus's for a brief, and surprisingly chaste, victory kiss.

 

Magnus returned the kiss as he simultaneously shed Alec of his shirt and guided him back on the bed and straddled Alec's waist. He trailed his lips along his strong jaw and back to his ear “Are you sure about this?”

 

Alec ran his hands admiringly over Magnus's exposed torso. He locked eyes with Magnus “Yes. Never been more sure of anything” his gaze fell back to the sight of Magnus's bare tan chest. Alec could feel the muscles and moaned, suddenly becoming aware that his pants were definitely way too tight. He reached down to unbuttoned and unzip his pants, shedding the offending material along with his boxers and then proceeded to do the same for Magnus. Alec shivered under Magnus's touch both now completely naked, their hardened members rubbing against each other

 

Magnus gasped softly at the body contact and wrapped his arms around Alec's neck, pressing against him to suppress his shivers of pleasure. He wanted to peruse that pale, lean body, and then mark it with love bites. He couldn't help but stare a bit, momentarily at a loss for words. He moved closer, his breath catching slightly "you must have been sculpted by the Gods" he whispered, unable to stop himself from running his hands over ribs to stomach to hips

 

"HmmmAhhh" Alec moaned as Magnus bit his neck. Alec's mouth released cries of pleasure. His back arched. His hips thrust upwards. Magnus hadn't even addressed Alec's needy cock and already the younger one was incoherent.

 

Magnus gripped Alec's hips, taming his bucking and suddenly providing him with some control that allowed their bodies to line up perfectly. He laid butterfly kisses over the places his teeth had just bruised, trailing his lips down Alec's neck, over his collarbone, before lavishing a perfectly timed bite on his nipple.

 

Alec's eyes rolled back in his head in ecstasy. Pleasured screams seemed to be the only sounds he was capable of making. Alec raised his hands to run along Magnus's body. He delicately traced his hands over Magnus's chest, which was rife with strength and power. Then Alec's hands drifted lower. He slowly ran his hands over Magnus's butt cheeks.

 

Magnus swirled his tongue around the nub of flesh and sucked lightly before pulling away, licking his lips. He was practically panting with want by now loving the secure and sexy feeling of Alec's large hands on his ass. Alec looked desperate with need. He leaned in close to Alec's ear and nipped the flesh and whispered "You're so beautiful. I've never wanted anyone this badly."

 

A low moan left Alec's lips. In his desire, one of his hands slipped from Magnus's ass to wrap around both their cocks. Alec stroked them gently together. "Magnus" he begged in a voice filled with lust and need.

 

Magnus trembled at the sound of his name being called so passionately not to mention the feel of Alec's hand against his hard length. He leaned in and kissed Alec deeply, exploring the other's mouth with his tongue before pulling away gently and whispering huskily "do you have lube?" Alec nodded to the bedside table.

 

Alec's head tried to follow Magnus's as he broke the kiss. His tongue slowly licked his lips in an attempt to get as much taste of Magnus as possible. He watched as Magnus applied lube to his fingers.

 

Magnus leaned in to kiss him again. As he did so, he pressed his finger gently against Alec's ass, and pushed inside slowly but surely.

 

Alec tried not to squirm. He focused on the feel of Magnus's lips against his own. He noticed how neither was smooth; Magnus's were just slightly chapped whereas Alec's own were textured from him occasionally chewing on them. Magnus gently slid the finger in farther, then added a second, deepening the kiss and biting down on Alec's lip as he did so to distract him. His other hand gently caressed his hip, enjoying the feel of the toned muscle and skin.

 

Alec flicked his tongue against Magnus's teeth, asking Magnus to give him deeper access to his mouth. He moaned into the kiss as Magnus stroked his hip. Alec wrapped his hand around the back of Magnus's head and tangled his fingers in his hair, trying to pull their heads closer together.

 

Magnus opened his mouth, allowing in his tongue with a soft moan in reply. He worked his fingers inside of Alec and then carefully removed them. The blood pulsing in his veins confirmed that he was ready and he broke the kiss for only a second to apply lube on his cock then gently, using as much restraint as he could, he slid his throbbing length into Alec's tightness. The feelings of pleasure nearly made him lose control, but he dug his fingers into Alec's thigh before he completely lost it. He gasped lightly as he pressed in deeper. He groaned softly and trailed kisses along Alec's jaw line. “fuck... you're so tight. Nngh, I've waited for this for so long... You've no idea how I've felt sitting next to you... oh God… so good..." The last words came out as a breathy moan next to Alec's ear as his hips bucked uncontrollably, causing him to dig his fingers into Alec's hip as he began to thrust.

 

"Aah! Magnus!" Alec cried out as Magnus began thrusting, he wrapped his hands around Magnus's back in to bring him closer “you feel so good”

 

"A-Alexander," Magnus gasped, panting now. He tangled his fingers in Alec's hair and pushed even deeper, his face flushed with pleasure. "Nn,... fuck..." Magnus moved his right hand to caress Alec's unattended member, stroking it lightly and skilfully as he plunged deeper.

 

"Mag-NUS!" Alec screamed as Magnus's hand finally began to tend to his erection. "yes yes yes! there there yes fuck please don’t stop" Alec chanted against Magnus's neck as he felt Magnus penetrated deeper into him. Alec felt that he was close to his end as Magnus hit his prostrate dead on again and again and again making his eyes roll back in pleasure and a cry of sheer ecstasy rush from his lips.

 

Magnus shuddered with pleasure and drove into Alec harder as he squeezed his throbbing length, revelling in the other's pleasure. "A-ahh, Alexander!" groaned Magnus loudly, he bucked into Alec, about to be overwhelmed with pleasure.

 

Alec shrieked something that sounded vaguely like Magnus's name as he finally came, spilling his seed on their chests, his body racked with rapturous delight.

 

Magnus tensed and he cried out loudly as he came hard, his back arching. He collapsed on Alec's sticky chest, shuddering with aftershocks and savouring every second of it. He gasped softly, clinging to Alec "That was amazing"  was the last thing he said and Alec heard, sleep overtaking them both.

 

 

Alec awoke slowly the next morning not quite believing what happened. He could still feel the heat and the kisses on his lips. He could still feel his heart pumping. He blinked awake and noticed two strong arms wrapped around him and smiled. The desire to be in someone's arms, to be held was strong and he could have stayed like this forever. This was a feeling he missed. He had boyfriends but never had he had such intensity and such a need to feel someone holding him as he felt with Magnus. It was perfect. He rolled to face Magnus and was met with beautiful golden eyes. He couldn’t stop the smile from appearing “good morning”

 

“Good morning Alexander” Magnus smirked, a twinkle in his eyes “please tell me that you’ve reconsidered your stance on dating thieves"

 

Alec chuckled softly “Hmm, yes, I suppose I have. Beside, I’m about to become a thief myself, right?” his date with Sebastian flashes in his mind “or did I completely mess up at dinner and you have to call it off"

 

“You’ve messed nothing up. We just have to rethink somethings. Speaking of which, we need to meet the guys in my hotel. We should get going. But first… how about a shower?”

 

The thought of Magnus wet and soapy renders Alec speechless. All he was capable of in that moment was grabbing Magnus by the hand and dragging him from bed towards the shower


	18. Biscuit

The crew is all gathered in Magnus’s room brainstorming. Simon who has been monitoring digital surveillance on his laptop, takes off his headphones “Well we scared him alright. He's flying the coop. His security guard called an armoured car service to confirm a 5 p.m. pick up at his house, then to confirm a MD11 Cargo plane departing from the Imperial Terminal at LAX at 8 p.m.”

 

“Confirmed? How'd we miss the first calls?” Magnus questioned

 

“They must have been cellular. Maybe a burner phone. The cargo plane is being chartered to Mexico City.”

 

“Only place with worse smog and traffic than L.A.” Jace says “Once the charter's in the air, he could change the flight path to anywhere. And good-bye gold”

 

“Not so fast” Magnus holds his hand up “This is good news for us.”

 

Jace cocks his head “Good news?”

 

“Sometimes when you're up to your ass in alligators you forget that you started off trying to drain the swamp.”

 

Jace doesn’t get it and doesn’t feel bad for not understanding when he looks around the room at the other confused faces “Meaning what the fuck?”

 

“We've been trying to get to the gold in the safe. Now the safe is coming to us. We'll boost it in transit.” He might as well have said they'll steal the Holy Grail before sunrise.

 

“Magnus. He could take a dozen different routes to the airport and we have no idea which one. We can't take out an armored truck during rush hour.”

 

“We're already set to do it. Simon how would you like to create the biggest traffic jam in the history of Los Angeles?”

 

Simon smirks “Keep talking.”

 

“You gridlock every route except the one we choose. Force the truck to go exactly where we want it to go.”

 

“But where do we want it?” Raphael starts shaking his head “We can't shoot it out with armed guards in an armoured truck. We'd lose. And even if we pulled it off, the cops would be all over us, chasing us all the way to Union Station. We're outmanned and outgunned.”

 

“But not outsmarted.” Magnus hums with focused energy. There's a term for it in horse racing. When a thoroughbred is at peak condition, and twitching with eagerness to run, he is "on the muscle." That describes Magnus right now. “We'll do it like the Italian job. We'll make thirty million in gold drop out of sight.” They're interrupted by Magnus's cell phone ringing. This throws them all off. “Who else has this number?”

 

“No one but us.” Raphael says staring at the phone like it’s a bomb

 

It's still ringing. Magnus decides to answer it on speaker “Hello?”

 

“Why'd you do it?” a woman’s voice comes through

 

“Biscuit? Do what?”

 

“Lorenzo. The gold dealer. You didn't have to clip him, for Christ's sakes.”

 

“Clip him?” Magnus looks worriedly around to the others

 

“Listen to me. You've gotta get out of L.A. Now.”

 

“What're you talking about Biscuit? We didn't clip anybody.”

 

“Well Skinny Pete just called me. Lorenzo's cousin is under the distinct impression that you did.”

 

“Why does he think that?”

 

“Because you wanted to know about the gold with the Balinese Girl. Plus I guess Pete was under _duress_.”

 

Magnus exhales a breath “Do you know how to get in touch with him?”

 

“Yeah but..”

 

“Maybe there's a way we can play this to our advantage.”

 

“Are you out of your mind? Listen to me, Magnus. Get out of L.A. Now. Cause if there's one thing I know, it's that you never mess with Mother Nature, boyfriends mothers, or these mother-fucking dudes.”

 

“Biscuit…”

 

“Fine Magnus but don’t say I didn’t warn you" she gives him a name and phone number and hangs up

 

Magnus walks out onto to balcony. He looks up to the sky and says a silent prayer before he dials the number Biscuit gave him. The phone rang three times before being answered with an angry “what?” Magnus steadies himself “is this Javier….”


	19. Orchestra Conductor

* * *

The UHaul is parked on the side of a noisy, congested boulevard. Parked behind it are two Minis and a Vespa. Traffic is flowing through the busy intersection, the occupants in the numerous vehicles unaware of what will happen today; unaware of what is happening just below them. Underground in the middle of the metro rail tunnel Raphael is at work, mounting Nitramon primer to the tunnel walls with Magnus’s assistance. They both wear orange jumpsuits, plus headsets and mics.

 

“Did you know Einstein’s 7th grade teacher told him he was a moron who'd never amount to anything? Same as mine” Raphael continues applying the primer

 

Magnus chuckles “Still hope for that Nobel Prize”

 

“Not me, man. But…” Raphael hesitates before he proudly announces “I did get my college diploma.”

 

“No shit? I thought you dropped out of high school.”

 

Raphael shrugs “Got my GED after Italy then just kept going.”

 

“How'd you manage that, all the jobs we've been pulling?”

 

“Quit going to strip clubs. Went to night school instead. City college is all. I didn't want to say anything to the guys.”

 

“Good for you. That's a real feather in your cap.” There's a rumbling sound in the distance “Secret's safe with me.”

 

Raphael gives him an appreciative nod “Any secrets you want to share with me? Like maybe something happened between you and a certain safe cracker?” he can see Magnus fidgeting “hey, don’t sweat it man. We all like Alec, he fits in well with us”

 

“Yeah, he’s pretty amazing” Magnus can’t help but smile “I think when all this is done I’m going to take him to Italy" his smile disappears because the rumbling grows unbearable as a Metro roars closer, headlights gobbling up the dark tunnel. They press themselves into a crevice in the wall. With a roar and a gust of wind, the Metro howls by. It makes their jaws clatter. They both let out a relieved breath, Magnus clicks on his headset “Simon. How goes it up there? Over.”

 

Simon's working on his laptop in the cargo area of the UHaul with Alec looking on. The monitor displays a string of computer code. He hears Magnus over his headset and replies “Working on the Metro Rail system. Almost ready.”

 

Jace's Mini is parked on the side of a winding road. Using binoculars, he looks down onto Sebastian's house. He calls into his headset “Everything's quiet here. Over.”

 

The Nitramon is applied. Raphael closes his eyes. Magnus observes him a moment. “You okay?”

 

“Ah huh. Just need a moment's meditation.”

 

“Now?” Magnus looks at him in disbelief

 

“I'm about to insert a wire into a detonator tube and if the wire touches the sides of the tube, we'll be blown to Kingdom Come. Best to be at one with yourself.”

 

Realizing the severity of their predicament Magnus nods “Take all the time you need.”

 

Another moment, then Raphael sets to work. Magnus holds a mini-flashlight, illuminating the intricate detonator. Very carefully, he inserts a wire into a tube. The wire is half-way in when a large spider drops onto his hand. Frozen, he ponders this. Magnus sees the spider and out of reflex he starts to reach for Raphael’s hand but Raphael shakes his head slowly and mouths “no.” Raphael studies the spider then he closes his eyes just for a moment and relaxes. breathes in. breathes out and then he leans forward, opens his mouth and clamps his lips over the spider, comes back up and finishes inserting the wire. Job done, he calmly opens his mouth the spider puts a hairy leg out and delicately explores his cheek. Raphael plucks it off just as delicately, depositing the spider on the wall. “My work here is done.”

 

Magnus just shakes his head in disbelief “Guess it’s a good thing it wasn’t dogs"

 

A Brinks truck climbs the road towards Sebastian's house, flanked by two BMW motorcycles. Through binoculars, Jace is still keeping an eye on Sebastian's house from the higher vantage point. The front gate rises. The Brinks truck and motorcycles are let inside and head up the driveway. But then he sees a second armoured truck drive up, also guarded by two motorcycles. And a third Brinks followed by motorcycles turns into the driveway. It's a convoy of matching armored trucks. Witnessing the twist of events through his binoculars. He speaks into his headset mic “Problemo.”

 

The rest of the crew is now all in the UHaul. Simon's manning the laptop “What is it?” he puts Jace on speaker

 

“He's brought in three identical armored trucks.”

 

“Shit” Magnus rubs the back of his neck “Decoys. It's like a shell game on wheels.”

 

Simon closes his eyes “How can I reroute the truck if I don't know which truck to reroute?”

 

The caravan of armored trucks and motorcycles now head down the driveway. The Aston Martin follows behind. Jace sees the vehicles head east. He reports into his mic “better figure it out. Three Brinks trucks are leaving with motorcycle escorts, plus Sebastian in his Aston.”

 

Simons frustration is Maddening “How're we going to figure out which truck has the gold?”

 

Magnus is just as frustrated. But in a tight spot he always comes up with an idea “You can monitor the traffic video cameras from your laptop, right?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Where's the first traffic camera the trucks will go past?”

 

Simon hits a command key and they now see the intersection where the vehicles are driving under the traffic signal that a video camera is mounted to. “Cahuenga Boulevard. They all have to cross that.”

 

“The weight of the gold will lower the suspension on the truck.” 

 

The first armored truck makes its way through the green light. Simon hits the keyboard and lines of measurements appear across the image of the Brinks truck. He strikes another key, momentarily freezing the image. He makes a visual check of the top of the armored truck against the street sign. Lines up with the top of the sign. He unfreezes the first image just in time to check out the next armored truck in line. Freeze. The top of this truck also lines up perfectly with the top of the street sign. “First two are the same.” The third Brinks truck makes its way through the intersection, the Aston behind it. It comes into the monitor's view. Freeze. The top of the truck is below the top of the street sign. “That's our truck! License plate AWP82092”

 

The three armored trucks and their motorcycles fan out in three different directions, with the Aston Martin going in a fourth direction.

 

Jace pulls up in his Mini and parks behind the other Minis just in time to hear Magnus give the command “Gridlock time.”

 

Simon executes, hitting a series of keys and the dummy file box they left in the mainframe computer room at traffic control clicks into action. In response, the false panels on the mainframe hum to life and the adjacent wall of mosaic traffic screens spiral into darkness. Simon controls the system now. A single mouse click loads his new algorithm into the computer and with a series of rapid-fire shots all the traffic signals turn green as simultaneously cars collide into each other. They see a domino line of rear-end crashes. A motorcycle tumbling over. The traffic lights turn red simultaneously. Then all turn green. Then red again. It's demolition derby time. Cars spinning like hockey pucks. Total traffic meltdown.

 

They soon hear a helicopter. Jace grabs his binoculars to see if he can ID the chopper. He shakes his head and joins the others in the UHaul “turn the radio to KNX-AM 1070”

 

“ ** _This is Lydia Branwell with your drive-home traffic report on KNX. I'm looking down on Hollywood Boulevard and this is definitely a SIG alert..."_**

 

Sebastian is blocked in solid, ahead and behind. “What the hell?” He turns on the radio as a space opens up on North Highland

 

Also stuck in the middle of it is the driver and guard, both armed, in the Brinks truck. Both are as confused as everyone else. “Get us out of here.”

 

“I'm trying.” The driver says as he sees a way out, a sudden opening that he takes

 

Inside the UHaul Simon sees on his laptop the gold truck, followed by two motorcycles, making the turn “He's taking it...” Simon hits more keys. “I now command you to turn left”

 

The truck comes to the next intersection. Every light is stuck on red except the left turn only signal which is green. No choice. The truck takes it.

 

Simon is striking keys like an orchestra conductor, the crew his audience “I've got it on Hollywood Boulevard. Time to slow down.” Signals turn green, but only for three seconds, long enough for one car to gun through it at a time.

 

Magnus gets out of the UHaul and climbs into the first Mini, Alec gets into the second and Raphael joins Jace in the third.

 

Sebastian gets the scoop over the radio. He can't believe it. He kind of blanks out, staring out his window wondering about his gold. He tunes back in when he hears the reporter say

 

“ ** _According to the police, the computers at the Traffic Control Centre are down..."_**

 

Sebastian knows who did that “Sonovabitch.”


	20. Worthington 1000

Through his rearview mirror, Magnus eyes the gold truck creeping closer “Gentlemen, start your engines.” Starting their engines-with souped-up, throaty roars “Give us the flag when you're ready.”

 

Simon has hacked into the Metro Rail's Control System and starts his magic “Shutting down the rail as we speak.”

 

A Metro is speeding through the Blue Line tunnel. Suddenly it loses power and comes to an inglorious stop. Another Metro stops on the Red Line. Simons laptop shows a group of still circles that represent the stalled Metros. “Tunnel's clear. Go!”

 

The three Minis jump the curb and drive right over the sidewalk. Pedestrians throw themselves out of their path. They make a sharp turn down the cement stairs that lead to the Metro Rail platform.

 

At the same time the creeping gold truck is just about alongside the parked UHaul. Through his side view mirror, Simon eyes the progress of the gold truck. He gives the word “Coming into position...”

 

The Minis roughly bounce down the second flight of stairs. The sides of the cars scrape against the metal handrails. Tourists, workers, all scamper away.

 

The gold truck getting closer. Simon starts the countdown “Five... Four. . . "

 

The Minis land on the platform where everyone is waiting for the next Metro. Heads turn at the sight of these half-cars streaking by.

 

The gold truck is almost alongside the UHaul “Three..."

 

Magnus's Mini flies off the platform and lands on the rail line. The car's shocks take the hit. The other Minis follow suit, off the platform, onto the rails. They drive past the spot where they put the Nitramon explosives.

 

Simon continues the countdown “two... One...Do it.”

 

Alec brakes to a stop and braces himself. Raphael pulls out his hearing aid, hits the remote to the detonator and the section of pavement that the gold truck sits on splits apart. The road surface drops away. Smoke billowing up as the Brinks truck falls inside the tunnel crashing down in a cloud of smoke and debris. The truck's windshield implodes. Raphael jumps out. Aims a grenade launcher. Fires. The triple charger chemical grenade sails in through the windshield and explodes, knocking out the guards. The driver slumps against the steering wheel.

 

At the same time, Simon hits a button on a remote control and clamps unlock, releasing a heavy steel sheet from the side of the UHaul. It slams down, neatly covering the gaping hole in the road like a huge manhole cover.

 

The motorcycles following the Brink's come to a sudden stop. The motorcycle guards watch the smoke clear. The armored truck has vanished! Vaporized in the gridlock! Gone! It’s Pandemonium. People scattering everywhere. A man jumps out of his BMW and sprints away from the explosion.

 

Simon gets out of the UHaul and runs to his getaway vehicle: the Vespa. He's about to hop on, but something stops him. The sight of a vacant, shimmering, BMW parked just ahead, keys dangling from the ignition.

 

The motorcycle guards climb off their bikes and draw semi-automatic handguns. Which results in more madness. As bystanders flee, the BMW tears out of there, Simon behind the wheel.

 

The rear door to the Brink's is open. The crew sees the Worthington 1000 inside. Magnus turns to Raphael “Nice work”

 

“Well like Einstein almost said: genius is ten percent inspiration, ninety percent detonation.”

 

Magnus snickers “Let's get our gold.”

 

Alec goes up to the imposing safe. Gives it a look of momentary respect, then sets to work.

 

Sebastian is fuming and his mood turns murderous when hears Lydia Branwell telling her radio audience:

 

**_“I've seen earthquakes, mudslides, fires, riots, but this... Let me try to paint a picture for our listeners. There's been some kind of an explosion and a Brink's truck has just dropped down into the Metro Rail Blue Line…”_ **

 

Sebastian slams the car into gear and jumps the sidewalk, passing the gridlock. He hollers into a walkie-talkie “The truck's in the Metro Rail. Where does the Blue Line go back above ground?”

 

The motorcycle guards who were escorting the decoy trucks hear Sebastian over their walkie-talkies. With squeals of rubber, they turn around as one of the guards answers “It comes out at Flower & Pico.”

 

In the tunnel Alec works the dial, feeling for contact points while the others are pacing, keeping an eye out. They are unaware that above them the two motorcycle guards fervently try to lift off the steel sheet that dropped down from the UHaul.

 

They see daylight start to stream in from above as the steel sheet slides a little. Magnus walks up to Alec “Alec?”

 

Alec shushes him “Shhh" his heart is pounding in his ears. He has perspiration on his fingertips. He wipes his hands on his Jean’s and looks at Jace “You know when you said this wouldn't be the same as opening a safe for the cops?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Did you have to be right?” Alec takes another deep breath and turns back to the safe

 

The motorcycle guards strain, managing to shift the steel sheet enough so they can see the armored truck below.

 

Alec's eyes are pure concentration. He tunes everything out, takes yet another deep breath and turns the dial until he finally hears a click. He grabs the safe's lever and swings the sturdy steel door open. He instinctively looks away.

 

Magnus puts his hand on Alec’s cheek “Don't you want to see what's inside?”

 

He leans into Magnus “I never look.”

 

“Trust me. You wanna look.”

 

And so he does. Inside is a mountain of gold bricks. He joins the others in loading the gold into the Minis.

 

The motorcycle guards heave, strain, finally getting the steel plate off. But it's too late as the Minis Engines rev, exhausts jets and hands slam stick-shifts. The cars streak off deeper into the Metro Rail tunnel, headlights bouncing off the walls. It's a rush cruising down the tunnel. Taking the Blue Line. Magnus leading the pack. But they're not home free yet.


	21. Vampires, Portals & Arrows

It’s rush hour gridlock but that’s no problem for the Aston Martin's 12 cylinder massive 210bph engine as it hits 120 m.p.h. in the breakdown lane. A Highway Patrol car starts chasing after it, siren wailing. Sebastian sees the patrol car in hot pursuit. He shifts into sixth and suddenly his car is a rocket blasting off, doing a 1/4 mile in 1.3 seconds, leaving the patrol car far behind.

 

Across town Javier and the other heavily armed men climb into a SUV. The garage door opens and the vehicle charges out of there. Simon's coasting down the boulevard in the BMW towards Union Station, it’s clear sailing for him.

 

In the Metro tunnel the three Minis speed by in streaks of red, white, and blue. Magnus spots the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel where the Blue Line rises up to ground level. The Minis thunder into the daylight, past the above ground platform, just as two motorcycles come flying around the corner after them.

 

There are two guards on each motorcycle with each man seated behind the driver holding AK-47s in each hand, giving them the appearance of having submachine guns growing out of their shoulders. Fingers go flat against the AK-47s triggers blowing shot after shot at the Minis. BAM-BAM-BAM.

 

In the teeth of gunfire bullets explode through the back windows in a cacophony of crashing glass. A shot clips Magnus’s door “Split up!” he yells through his mic. They head off in different directions through congested downtown rush hour traffic.

 

One motorcycle takes off after Magnus's Mini. The other motorcycle goes after Jace's Mini. So Alec is free and clear… except that Sebastian's Aston Martin is barrelling down and coming after him. And, there’s an LAPD helicopter flying above, the pilot swooping in and barking out instructions to police cars converging on the scene.

 

Jace is dogging relentless gunfire with every move. He shifts smooth as silk, squeezing between a car he's passing and an oncoming car in the other lane. Raphael is trying his best to remain calm but Jesus, that was close. Suddenly, Jace veers off the road and WHAM he takes down a chain link fence and is now in the parking lot of the convention centre. His white Mini catapults across the asphalt, the motorcycle right behind him. Up ahead, he eyes the open door entrance to the convention centre and stomps the gas.

 

Raphael is holding on for dear life “What are you doing?” The turbine howls, Jace has the oddest grin on his face and Raphael realizes Jace is enjoying this. Jesus Christ, he is actually enjoying this “What — are — you — doing?” Jace winks at him. He fucking winks!

 

The Mini squeezes through the doorway and into the convention centre, past an overhead banner. It's a Shadowhunters convention and it’s in full swing. Display tables are lined up in the cavernous hall. Raphael chances a look out the side window and it’s as if he’s seeing in slow motion. He swears he sees a woman in a red dress hiss at him and it looks like she has vampire teeth. Other people have swords and some have wings. He closes his eyes, faces front and opens them again and everything speeds back up. The Mini snakes through the maze of fans and displays, the motorcycle follows right behind. The chase is really on now.

 

THUDA THUD THUDA, the Mini's wheels climb a flight of steps. Waves of people flee the path of the little car and the motorcycle that stills follows right behind. The Mini zips down the wide concourse hall traveling underneath banners of Shadowhunters characters that hang from the ceiling — the motorcycle keeps up, tires tearing into the carpeting.

 

Jace shifts and swerves as he avoids people and obstacles. Raphael thinks he sees an out “Go that way!” Jace turns, taking them down the West hall that stretches out toward the Staples Centre.

 

The Mini steamrolls through the exit doors. It bounds down outdoor steps and ramps onto the outside entrance to the Staples Centre, fitting snugly between cement pillars that are designed to keep regular-sized cars out. The motorcycle still follows

 

The Mini bulldozes through glass doors, across the lobby and down an aisle that leads right to centre court where basketball players are in the midst of practice. The Mini looks like a matchbox car next to these towering players. The car's tires leave a streak of rubber on the parquet floor. The team clears a path, one player throws a ball at the car, hitting the roof, it does nothing to slow them down. The car is off the court before they know it. But now the players see the motorcycle coming down the aisle and spot the guns. Security guards running after it. Another player picks up a basketball as the motorcycle charges across centre court. He aims and hurls the ball. It rams into the motorcycle's handlebars and the bike spins out of control and into a nasty fall, spitting off the riders while the Mini crashes out the doors on the opposite side of the arena and glides right through before escaping onto the road.

 

Magnus’s red Mini jumps a curve onto a wide sidewalk, accelerating full throttle for the horizon while pedestrians flatten themselves against a high-rise in fear. Turning onto a Blvd., the motorcycle in pursuit, the chopper overhead, he sees someone give him the finger “If you don't like how I'm driving, get off the damn sidewalk.”

 

Magnus is still having a helluva time getting rid of the motorcycle goons chasing him. The bike screams like a Banshee as it streaks up alongside the Mini. Magnus suddenly sees an AK-47 pointed right at him. He jerks the steering wheel and swerves off the street, driving through the parking lot of some historic hotel. With the motorcycle dogging his heels, he looks up at the building. It has three towers that rise up 12 stories, with a giant mural of Albert Einstein covering one of the towers.

 

Suddenly the LAPD helicopter swoops down towards the parking lot, shattering the air, blowing up dirt and discarded newspapers in a rush of turbo-wash, trying to box in the Mini. Magnus only has one choice.

 

The Mini squeezes through the entrance and into the hotel lobby with its exotic Moroccan decor. Horrified guests catapult out of the way. He drives past wooden statues and potted palm trees then spots an elevator door opening and tourists stepping off “Going up?” The Mini darts right in, not an inch to spare, he reaches out the window and presses the button for the roof. He sees the motorcycle charging after him, burning rubber across the beautiful tiled floor getting closer and closer. The door closes just in time. He exhales but knows he’s not out of the woods yet

 

The doors open with a PING and the Mini reverses out and spins forward. Magnus takes a quick look around and sees the three towers are connected by a narrow strip and each tower has its own elevator. He wants to drive across the rooftop strip but there's a big problem: the giant sign that exclaims the hotel’s name in red and white neon lights blocks so much of the strip that even the Mini couldn't squeeze through. What he wouldn’t give for a magical portal right now.

 

In his rearview, he sees the second elevator door open and out comes the motorcycle. He's trapped up here. But he's not about to abandon ship. So he floors it, slaps the gears, hurtles to the edge of the first tower and prays to every God and demon he’s ever read about.

 

His car hurls into the wide blue empty space, spiralling through the air like a football, the ground deliriously distant. The Mini lands on the second tower, right-side-up with a thud. Magnus, rattled, looks over his shoulder and sees the LAPD helicopter rising over the rooftop, turbines screaming. And here comes the motorcycle. Flying from one section of the rooftop to the next. It lands and the driver revs it forward.

 

Magnus speeds toward the edge of the roof and launches off towards the third tower some twenty feet away. He’s amazed again when he lands. He keeps going to the last elevator, skids to a stop, reaches out and punches the call button repeatedly. He looks over his shoulder to witness the motorcycle going full throttle to make the final rooftop to rooftop jump. But its front wheel hits the edge slightly off-kilter. It soars but with a slight downward trajectory towards a large window on the top floor. Then lower. And the look on the driver's face says it all as the front wheel of the motorcycle smacks into the side of the building, just below the window. The guards are flung off the bike and their bodies crash through the window as a hunk of exploding metal imbeds itself in the side of the LAPD chopper. The guards land in a suite in a hailstorm of glass shards. Smoke billows out of the helicopter where the hunk of metal hit. The pilot keeps it under control but it's time to go. With a whining throb, the injured chopper banks away.

 

The elevator door finally opens with a ping. Magnus's Mini shoots out then skids out the lobby's exit. He made it.

 

The Aston Martin is eating up the pavement as it hounds after Alec. Two police cars are roaring after them both. Alec slaps the gears into action, manoeuvres tight turns around the cars in his path, just like he does at home with Jack Daniels. The rear tires of the Aston Martin spin and smoke as it launches like a missile after the Mini. One of the cop cars tries to pass the same car as the Alec and Sebastian but smashes into an oncoming vehicle and it spins like a corkscrew and is out of the chase

 

Alec keeps flooring it, the gauge rising and the customized engine screaming. But the Aston Martin, like an unstoppable force, hangs menacingly in his rearview mirror.

 

Sebastian rams into the rear bumper of the blue Mini. The bumper tears off and rolls across the pavement. He’s about to make another charge…

 

Alec yanks the wheel left to avoid the hit and suddenly finds himself in the path of an Arrowhead water truck. He yanks the wheel right to avoid a collision. The truck driver hits the brakes, over compensating as he turns away from the Mini and falls over onto its side, sending those big jugs all over the road, water exploding into the air. The Aston Martin crashes through the jugs, one rolling up the hood and over the windshield, dousing it like a car wash. The lane is blocked by the wreck. Sebastian makes a right turn as the police cruiser hits the brakes but not fast enough. It slams into the water truck.

 

Sebastian turned onto a one-way street and he's going the wrong way. A Jeep Wrangler almost runs into him head-on but both cars stop just in time. The driver of the Jeep is a muscular fire plug of a guy, he jumps out, furious, storming towards Sebastian “What's wrong with you, you stupid-ass, son of a bitch, dickhead...” Sebastian gets out of the Aston Martin and walks towards the furious driver who is still hurling invectives “What? You want a piece of me? C'mon, dumbshit. Bring it on. I'll be pulling peanuts out of your assho…” BANG. Sebastian shoots the guy's foot. “Shit! Shit! You shot me in the foot!” While the furious driver hops on one leg, Sebastian gets into the Jeep and takes off, abandoning the Aston Martin.

 

Alec checks the rearview mirror. No sign of the Aston Martin just a Jeep Wrangler back there. He looks relieved and feels like he's home free.


	22. Boyfriend

Alec finally pulls up to the ramp of the enclosed car carrier at the end of Amtrak Train 59, bound for New Orleans. He can see the other two Minis are already inside and breathes a sigh of relief. He gets out and hands the cargo loader a ticket and rushes to the first class car just as the "all aboard" announcement goes out over the PA system.

 

The Superliner train pulls out of the station, quickly picking up speed. The outside streaks by through the window of the first class car compartment where a happy crew is each holding a glass of champagne. Magnus holds up his glass and gets their attention “I want to make a toast. Cause there's somebody missing here today, and we all know who it is” they all nod and raise their glasses “To Robert Lightwood. The most brilliant master planner of them all. We wish he was with us”

 

It's been a three year odyssey for them. They got the gold, but they lost someone they loved. All of them clink their glasses “To Robert” they say in unison but Magnus hears Alec whisper “to dad" and shoots him a loving smile.

 

Inside the last train car are the three Minis but there’s also a Jeep Wrangler. Its rear hatch rises and Sebastian creeps out. He looks around and sees no one, it's safe. He walks over to Alec's Mini and pops open the trunk revealing a silver Haliburton suitcase. He unzips the case and sees it's filled with stacks and stacks of gold bricks, the exotic face of a Balinese girl on each one. He knows his gold. These bricks are real. He pulls out a brick and embraces it “Hello beautiful.” He’s so lost in the moment that he doesn’t hear the trunks of the other two Minis rise in unison. Javier climbs out of the trunk of the white Mini while another man comes out of the trunk of the blue Mini. Three more men slide out from underneath the Minis and they cock their guns.

 

Sebastian is pulled from his daydream when he hears the familiar sound from behind him, he sets the gold brick down and turns slowly around to see the weapons pointed at him. His eyes darting between each man, trying to evaluate the situation and figure out if he can shoot his way out. He's just about to ask who they are when one of the men, probably the one in charge, walks towards him and says “Take out your gun and drop it on the floor.” Definitely the one in charge.

 

Sebastian has no choice, he drops his gun “Who are you?” His mind can only think that his old crew of has set him up and when he get’s out of this he’s going to kill each and everyone of them

 

“You knew my cousin. Lorenzo.”

 

Sebastian plays dumb “I never knew anyone named Lorenzo. Maybe if you explain a little bit more to me about…” he doesn’t get to finish

 

Javier cuts him off “Get in the trunk.” Sebastian not seeing a way out looks at the trunk with the gold “Not that trunk, this one. That gold is for us. A gift from some old friends of yours. Don’t worry, they got you a gift as well. They asked me to give this to you" Javier tosses something to him

 

Sebastian catches it and looks at it with wide eyes. He closes his eyes, shakes his head in disbelief and grunts out a quiet “fuck” as he crumbles the Dixie cup in his fist and lets it fall to the ground “Listen, I don’t know what deal they made with you but I can give better. More. Whatever you want..”

 

The men force Sebastian into the trunk of the white Mini and for the first time, he's scared. Bargaining doesn’t seem to be working so he switches tactics. He looks up at Javier and he begs “Please. Don't shoot me. Please...”

 

“Don't worry. That wasn't the deal. I'm not going to shoot you.”

 

Sebastian looks relieved “Thank you. Thank God.”

 

Javier chuckles and turns his head towards his men “He really thought I was going to shoot him.” His men laugh. Sebastian tries to laugh but Javier continues “No. No. I'm not going to shoot you. I'm going to hack off your limbs and bury you while you're still alive.” And with that, he closes the trunk with a thud like the lid of a coffin. And for Sebastian, the world falls into blackness.

 

Inside the first class compartment, underneath the crews seats are the other two silver Haliburton suitcases filled with the rest of the gold. Magnus cuts threw the conversations “Jace. New ID's?”

 

Jace passes out new fake driver's licenses for when they arrive in New Orleans.

 

Simon let’s out a frustrated exhale after he eyes his ID “Simon Quackenbush? Could I, just once, have a cool name?”

 

Raphael, also complaining “250 pounds?”

 

They're interrupted by the ring of Magnus's phone. He answers, not with a hello but a very serious “Did you get what you wanted?”

 

Javier is on the other end of the line “I'm happy.”

 

Magnus nods to Simon who types commands into his laptop “It was good doing business with you” and with that he disconnects the call

 

Simon hits a few final keys and a signal box receives the command. The coupler between the car carrier and the rest of the train is electronically disengaged. The train separates from the car carrier and speeds on without it at 100 miles per hour. The car carrier slowly comes to a stop in the middle of nowhere.

 

“It’s done" Simon smiles “How about we go to the dining car? I’m starving”

 

Alec’s eyes widen at the mention of the dining car, like he’s forgotten something important. He rushes to the door but doesn’t make it far because Magnus grabs his hand and pulls him back. Magnus looks at the others “Give us a minute?”

 

As the door closes Magnus pulls Alec down to sit next to him on the bench “We did it.”

 

Alec smiles at him “We sure did.”

 

“There's something I've been meaning to ask you, Alexander. But I've just been so busy lately, what with the explosion, car chase, Spaniards and all.”

 

“It has been a hectic day.” Alec agrees

 

“It's about that thing you said to me, back at your shop, that you can’t have a relationship with a pickpocket, gold robber, or any kind of thief. Do you still believe that?”

 

“Oh...” Alec, for the first time, thinks he sees doubt in Magnus’s eyes. He squeezes his hand “Yeah. I do.”

 

Magnus deflates a little until he notices the look in Alec’s eyes, there’s a mischievous sparkle in them “Well, then, I was wondering... What about a retired pickpocket, gold robber and thief?”

 

“Now that's an entirely different question” an enigmatic smile settles across his face. He leans in and kisses Magnus “Magnus. I told you I changed my mind after the night we spent together. Now, come on _boyfriend_ , lets join the others”

 

Jace, Raphael and Simon are sitting in the dining car. It features crisp white linens, fresh flowers and extended windows for scenic dining. Not that Simon notices any of that. He’s been staring nonstop at the table across from them where the most beautiful women he’s ever laid eyes on sits. Jace gives him a nudge and a wide smile “Go on Simon, talk to her"

 

Simon takes a deep breath, squares his shoulders and walks to the table where the beauty sits alone “Is this seat taken?”

 

She smiles up at him “It is now.”

 

Simon takes the seat across from her “Are you travelling alone?”

 

“I’m supposed to meet my brother. He very mysteriously told me to get to California and board this train at this time….” She stops talking when she spots two other passengers coming into the car. She all but runs to one of them and throws her arms around him “Big brother! I’ve missed you"

 

Alec is hugging her back just as tightly “I missed you too Iz. Come on, let me introduce you to everyone.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a couple more chapters I'm working on...just some playful banter between the lads. And, of course, I'm planning an epilogue too.
> 
> I also have the following thought buzzing around my head: what if Sebastian survives his torture or escapes?
> 
> Should I run with this thought and continue this story? Or leave well enough alone?


	23. Robert's Orders

It was perfect. Everything had gone to the final plan, and everyone was looking forward to getting what they wanted. Once the gold was split, they would each have enough to never have to steal again, which would be a big deal to Magnus. He had been stealing his whole life, and now he was offered a chance to stop it.

 

Isabelle had excused herself, deciding to take a nap in their first class compartment. It was all a little overwhelming for her and her brain hurt from all the information she just received. Alec, her big brother, was now a thief just like his father. The one thing he said he hated about Robert and now he’s just like him. And on top of that, he wants to give her his shop. It was too much, so she decided a nap was just what she needed.

 

The rest remained in the dining car and continued to drink. Simon wasn't on his laptop for once and Jace wasn't picking petty arguments with him. Raphael planned on getting as drunk as possible, until, of course, Magnus reminded him that they still had to drive the remaining Minis.

 

"Why do I have to drive?" Raphael had asked Magnus, downing the rest of his fourth glass of the expensive wine "You, Alec and Jace managed just fine before."

 

"Ah, but Alec's riding with me next time" Magnus pointed out with a cheeky smile. His arm had been around Alec's waist for at least an hour now, and he was inching closer and closer to him every time he moved “And I assume the lovely Isabelle will ride with us. And, if his googly eyes are anything to go by, Simon will be with us too”

 

Jace rolled his eyes "Can't you two at least wait until the rest of us have gone?" he asked, fed up with the public displays of affection.

 

"Unless you all want to fuck off into another carriage, no" Magnus stated "Besides, remember what Robert used to say?"

 

"What did he say?" Raphael slurred

 

Jace and Simon answer at the same time in a sing-song voice that was shockingly like Alec's when combined together "Find someone you want to spend the rest of your life with and hold on to them forever."

 

"And he's only been saying it, every day.." Jace continued

 

"...for at least a year" Simon finished

 

"Yes, well, I'm following Robert's orders" Magnus replied cockily, giving Alec a quick tug so he fell completely against him, and they both ended up laughing "Starting now." Thanks to Magnus, he was now almost laying in his lap, held up only a little by his arm.

 

"Yeah, well," Raphael carried on "It still doesn't change the fact that there's six of us and two cars. Jace can drive."

 

Magnus wasn't listening anymore, he was looking down at Alec in that typical way in movies where the hero is just about to kiss his love interest. Only, considering they had just stolen millions of dollars worth of gold, he wasn't really a hero.

 

"Magnus?" Raphael asked "Yoohoo Magnus!" He slammed his hand on the table “Yo! Bane!”

 

"Don't even try, mate" Jace pointed out "He can't hear a word your saying."

 

"You mean, we could say anything right now and he wouldn't hear it?" Simon said curiously

 

"A bomb could go off and he wouldn't realise it."

 

"So, we could say something like 'Magnus is a real loser' and he wouldn't even flinch."

 

To no one's surprise, he didn't move.

 

"I think you could do better than that" Jace said. "Something more along the lines of Magnus is so love sick right now that if he doesn't stop it, I'm going to throw both of them off the train."

 

Magnus looked up "Now that one I heard, and I would love to see you try."

 

"So would I for that matter" Alec added

 

"Careful, Jace, Alec might throw you off first" Simon warned

 

"Yeah right" he said sarcastically "He might be able to handle a car, but he can't handle Magnus."

 

"Oh really?" Alec asked, trying to sit up, but Magnus wouldn't let him.

 

"Yeah" Jace said confidently "He's been a thief his whole life. You've been a thief for what? A minute? What makes you think you can handle him like you handle your wheels?"

 

"Maybe I don't need a reason" Alec said as confidently as Jace

 

"How do you figure that?" Jace asked him

 

"Because all I need to do, is this" he pulled Magnus down to him and kissed him, bringing about lots of complaints from the others, and after a little while, they both pulled away.

 

"You know what," Magnus began breathlessly "If that's anything to go by I think I want to be handled."

 

Alec cocked his eyebrow daringly at Jace, who shook his head and sighed. Alec won the first bet. Magnus had been officially handled. This was going to mark the beginning of a long series of Jace and Alec bets.


	24. Mutual Feeling

Alec stayed in the position Magnus had pulled him into for ages. A very drunk Raphael offered him another glass of champagne. He was closely catching up with him on the amount he had drank now, but he was handling it better, or at least, hiding it better. He went to take the glass from him, but stopped as soon as he had stretched out his hand, recoiling and hissing in pain "Ouch!"

 

Jace almost laughed at the expression on Magnus's face when Alec cried out, but instead he frowned in slight worry.

 

"What's wrong?" Magnus asked him. He held his right hand in his left, but Magnus took it in his own and looked over the skin. The skin around his knuckles was red and swollen, some parts beginning to bruise into purplish black. Magnus pressed down on the swollen area and felt his hand twitch beneath his touch, as if he were fighting his instinct to recoil from the pain "Sorry” he muttered “did you punch someone?”

 

Alec shrugged “not someone, something. I was getting frustrated when Sebastian was following me and I may have taken it out on the dashboard”

 

"You should probably put some ice on it, bring the bruising out quicker" Jace told him

 

Simon slid over the bucket of ice that was cooling the champagne "Ice” he said simply

 

Magnus put Alec's hand on the table, placing a few ice cubes over his knuckles, then withdrew his hand slowly, making sure that ice cubes weren't about to fall. At first, it was extremely cold, but soon it began to numb his hand. "Leave those on there for a while" Magnus instructed "That should do it, just fine."

 

Simon shook his head tiredly "What time is it?" he asked

 

Jace checked his watch "11pm."

 

Alec sighed, leaning back against Magnus again "How much longer till we get, wherever we're going?"

 

"A few more hours at least" Magnus told them "Then we've got to drive to the airport, where I've booked us a flight to Italy."

 

"Italy?" Simon asked

 

"Well, I figured as that's where this all started, it would be a good place to lay low for a while."

 

"I like Italy" Alec said lightly "It's romantic."

 

Magnus did a hand gesture for emphasis "And that" he added. Then, as if reading Alec’s mind “And don’t worry about Isabelle, I’m sure we’ll be able to get her on the flight with us.”

 

Alec yawned, as did Simon "We should take turns sleeping, making sure that one of us is awake so we don't miss the stop" Magnus pointed out. Alec took this as an invitation and moved so that his head was rested against Magnus’s shoulder, but so that the ice was still balanced on his hand. He sighed gently, closing his eyes and falling asleep within seconds.

 

Jace and Simon watched this with looks on their faces that suggested that Magnus was insane. "Simon" Jace said, a bit threateningly "Don't even think about doing that to me."

 

The rest of the men all laughed, and after about an hour Jace and Magnus were the only ones awake, seeing as Raphael had drunk himself unconscious, finishing a whole bottle of champagne to himself.

 

"You know," Magnus began teasingly "For someone who spends such a lot of time with women, you really hate relationships, don't you?"

 

Jace still had a look on his face which half said 'that's disgusting' and half said 'you're insane', which was amusing Magnus a lot "For someone who was single yesterday you're really gross aren't you?" He countered.

 

"It's not gross” Magnus argued.

 

"It is for the rest of us."

 

"I don't care" Magnus said with a cheeky smile, his trademark smile "It's brilliant."

 

"Well at least I don't have to listen to you moaning every day now" Jace said, rather relieved.

 

"Moaning?"

 

"’I wonder how Alexander is,' 'We haven't seen Alexander in a while,' 'I might call Alexander, see how he's doing,' ‘Alexander would love this,'"

 

"Ok, ok, you made your point" Magnus surrendered, not noticing Alec's eyes opening. Jace noticed, and decided to have some fun with it.

 

"Truth is, you've been nuts about him since the day Robert introduced you" Jace said, folding his arms over his chest as Magnus put his hand over the part of Alec's that wasn't balancing the ice. Although being secretly awake, Alec did not move. Magnus didn't answer. 

 

"Admit it, Magnus."

 

"That was like, seven years ago Jace" Magnus pointed out "He was only eighteen."

 

"And you were only twenty four" Jace countered "Besides, who's counting? Six years means nothing nowadays. There's loads of people going out with a bigger age gap than the one between you and him."

 

Magnus shifted uncomfortably in his seat, but carefully as to not 'wake' Alec, who he still thought was sleeping "Ok, I admit it" he mumbled.

 

"Sorry, Magnus, I didn't quite hear that?" Jace asked teasingly, even though he had heard perfectly what Magnus had said.

 

"I said I admit it" Magnus repeated louder "I admit that I've been nuts about Alexander since I saw him seven years ago."

 

Jace smiled his devilish smile "That's better. Let's see if the feeling's mutual. Alec?" Alec threw Jace a shocked look.

 

"Jace, he's aslee…." Magnus looked down and saw Alec staring at Jace "Nice, you two, real nice" he said, realising that he had been set up.

 

Alec laughed quietly "I had nothing to do with it" he said innocently.

 

"Of course not, Alec" Jace agreed sarcastically "How could you? I mean, you were asleep."

 

Alec raised his head from Magnus's shoulder, stretching his neck "You're just jealous" he teased him.

 

"Yes," Jace said, sarcasm dripping off every word "I am so jealous that you get to be all disgusting with Magnus. Which reminds me," he said, leaning forward on the table, resting on his forearms "You didn't answer my question."

 

"What question?"

 

"Is the feeling mutual?"

 

"Of course it is" he said

 

"Ah, but has it been mutual for seven years?"

 

"It was mutual seven years ago. For the past few years, after what happened with dad, it wasn't entirely mutual" he told him "But it is completely mutual now"

 

"Now that everything's out in the open," Jace said, somehow proud of himself for embarrassing Magnus in front of Alec "I am going for a piss."

 

"Thank you Jace," Alec said cheerfully "My life feels really complete now that I know that."


	25. Nine Years Later

"What do you think you're doing?"

 

"Hey, that's my wallet!"

 

"Stop!"

 

"Ahh!”

 

"Alec! Help!"

 

Four male voices automatically called out for the same man. Alec, standing in the kitchen of his and Magnus's mansion, set down his knife on the table top, resisting the urge to take it with him. Instead he sighed and went towards the back of the house. It was a large mansion, but the price hadn't created too much of a dent in their share of the gold. It had a huge garden, which was complete with a terrace, and the size meant that there had been many a time when people had visited, only to disappear for hours once getting lost in the maze of the garden.

 

Once stepping onto the terrace, he laughed. He laughed so hard that he had to collapse onto a nearby chair to save himself from falling onto the tiled floor.

 

"It's not funny!" Magnus moaned

 

But for Alec it was funny, it was very funny. Who wouldn't laugh to see four fully grown men, who had, coincidently, stolen millions of dollars worth of gold, at the mercy of their children?

 

When he and Magnus decided they wanted children, they went through a surrogate who agreed to have both Magnus and Alec’s sperm added to her egg. They had been told that in doing it this way, the child would have a bit of the egg donor's DNA but the fertilized egg would have the DNA of both dads. Nine months later and Gabriel arrived. When the woman contacted them 2 years later and said she was retiring from surrogacy but wanted to offer them her last donation, they jumped on the offer. That’s how the twins, Nicholas and Nathan came about. One night, when they had just left a restaurant after one of their date nights, they heard whimpering coming from an alley by a dumpster. As they took a closer look, they saw two children. One was cradling the other trying to stop his crying. Both children had been abandoned and some how found each other. One look at Alec and Magnus knew they would be taking them home. After a lot of paperwork and promised donations Raphael and Maxwell became theirs. The youngest of their children, Madeline, or Madzi as they call her, was adopted through an agency when she was just six months old. Both Magnus and Alec had been longing for a little girl to spoil, and boy does she have them all wrapped around her fingers.

 

So there they were in a bundle on the grass, struggling against six children, who had them easily pinned to the ground, and were torturing them with tickles. Magnus was being held captive by three year old Madzi, who was sitting on his chest. Raphael had his arms pinned down by six year old Max. Simon was lying on his front with seven year old Raph veering him. Jace, who was possibly worse off than the rest of them, had the twins, six year old terrors, Nate sitting on his head, and Nick on his chest, going through his pockets. What had made Alec laugh most, though, was the fact that their oldest, eight year old Gabriel, was standing behind the men, facing towards the kids and was doing what Jace called 'playing Magnus’ giving out orders.

 

With his black hair and tan skin, Gabriel was the spitting image of Magnus, getting more so like him everyday, but his hazel eyes were undoubtable Alec's. His eyes got him out of a lot of trouble, but it was Madzi who had mastered the fluttering of her eyelids at Magnus to get on his good side. It didn't work with Alec though, after all, he had invented that trick on Magnus, and had taught it to Madzi.

 

At the moment, Gabriel was pacing up and down, observing the other children's techniques "Good job guys! You all got their gold?" Gabriel asked, deepening his voice so he sounded exactly like a miniature Magnus. All of the children held up wallets, save for Madzi, who sat still "Excellent" Gabriel looked at his sister, speaking normally and not in his deepened tone, "Madzi, did you get Papa's keys?" Madzi smiled cheekily as she held up the car keys "Well done, Madzi.” Gabriel was just about to give the next order when he spotted Alec “Oh, hi Daddy."

 

All the kids stopped and turned their heads to Alec. Madzi was still wearing her cheeky smile and said proudly, "Look, daddy, I'm stealing!" happily holding up Magnus's car keys "And I done it all on my own!"

 

Of course, teaching their kids to steal hadn't been something that Alec and Magnus had meant to do. It just seemed to come naturally to them.

 

"Good girl" Alec congratulated, smiling, trying not to laugh again. "Gabriel what have I said about jumping your papa and uncles?" He asked his son with a raised eyebrow. This particular game was getting more and more frequent now.

 

Gabriel smiled "But daddy, I didn't jump them, they did” he pointed out at his siblings as though he thought it was blindingly obvious.

 

"Alec?" Jace asked, muffled by Nate still.

 

"Yes, Jace?" He answered sweetly.

 

"Can you handle these kids now? I'd really like to stand up some time soon."

 

"Oh, no" Alec said with a smirk "The only one I'm helping out of the four captives this time is this one" he scooped Madzi up from Magnus’s lap, gathering his giggling daughter up. "Now, I don't know about you, but I'm starving. Let's get this barbecue started." Stepping over Simon he asked “Where is Izzy?”

 

“She had a last minute call into the station. She said it shouldn’t take too long"

 

Alec nodded he’s acknowledgement. He is so proud of Izzy. She came to terms pretty quickly regarding his thievery especially when he explained it was a one time occurrence and it was to get back at the man who murdered his father. Alec had offered her his shop, not knowing how long they would have to be in hiding, but she turned it down saying she only worked there to be close to him. But when Alec asked what she wanted, he would give her anything, she surprised him and asked if he would pay for her to go to medical school. She is now the top forensic specialist in the state.

 

Half an hour later, the boys were playing on the grounds, presumably in the trees as Alec could hear them, but he couldn't see them, and Madzi was sleeping in his lap, worn out from her stealing. Magnus, Jace, Raphael and Simon all came out of the house adopting poses that were similar to Superman's, jutting out their chests and putting their hands on their hips. As Gabriel had done earlier, they all took on deeper voices.

 

"Men here" Jace stated

 

"Make fire" Magnus continued

 

"Cook food" Raphael carried on

 

"Put fire out by peeing. Not get invited back" Simon finished, and Alec laughed again.

 

It was like this everytime they got together for a barbecue. They would all get emotional with the fire, taking it to heart if every coal did not burn. He wondered why they were so hesitant to cook inside the house, but so enthusiastic to cook when it was outside involving fire and sharp objects. Alec supposes he was the same before the kids, now he is content to be a spectator.

 

Alec laid back on the recliner, being sure not to wake up Madzi, and relaxed. After a while, the smell of cooking burgers and sausages filled the air, and he could hear the boys playing in the distance, their loud voices calling to each other, calling their parents, getting close to them, shouting, screaming...

 

Screaming? Yes they were, he could hear them calling for help. Gabriel was screaming the loudest

 

Alec sat bolt upright, looking at the men, who had already heard what he had, and were looking in the direction of the shouts. He managed to see a helicopter flying over their house, so dangerously low to the ground that it woke up Madzi, and she cried loudly over the rushing blades. He watched as Magnus was the first to move, leaping over the terrace wall, closely followed by the others, who ran down the garden, but Magnus turned back to Alec "Take Madzi inside, stay there" he instructed.

 

"But what about-"

 

"I'll get Gabriel and the rest" he assured him "Get her inside."  And with that, Magnus followed the others. Being a fast runner, he easily caught up with them.

 

Alec was slow in taking up Magnus's order to get in the house, he had a bad feeling about this. He could only hope that they would come back quickly. He knew something was wrong from the moment that Gabriel had screamed. He never screamed, he was always the one who took charge of the others, looked after them, didn't scare easily. But he had screamed, and Alec had heard it loud and clear.  He stood inside the door leading out to the terrace, looking through the pane of glass. They had been gone for ten minutes now “For Christ's sake where are they?” He thought desperately.

 

No one was screaming now, he couldn't hear the helicopter either but he could see it circling in the distance. One horrible thought came to the front of his mind. Please, don't let it be him, we're all happy now, don't let it be him, not with our sons out there. But it couldn’t be him, could it? He is dead

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Obviously I've decided to continue on with this story, hope you enjoy it. However, you won't get another update for about 3 weeks (sorry) as I'll be on holiday in the States!


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